LAKELAND, Fla. – The Nova Southeastern University baseball team (33-14, 16-5) split Saturday's doubleheader with the Florida Southern Mocs (28-15, 10-8), dropping game one by a score of 9-7 and winning the rubber match 12-0. The series win marks the Sharks' third series win amongst teams in the top nine in the NCAA South Region poll after taking three-of-four games from Alabama-Huntsville and two-of-three games from Tampa.
 
Game 1 – FSC 9, NSU 7
 
The Sharks took an early lead on an Andres Visbal RBI-single but then trailed for the remainder of the game, cutting the Mocs' lead to one late in the game. NSU starter Matt Hardy struggling with command and was pulled after two innings of work, allowing five hits, six runs (three earned) and walking two.
 
With the Sharks trailing 5-1 heading into the third, Visbal drove in his second run of the game on a ground out to third base that scored Kevin Suarez. Florida Southern took the run right back, scoring one in the bottom of the third off of Devin Pellien. Pellien tossed five innings in relief, allowing just two runs.
 
NSU cut the Florida Southern lead to two in the fourth when Kevin Suarez doubled to score Jancarlos Cintron and Sebastian Diaz. The Mocs came right back and extended their lead to 8-4 on a two-run homerun. NSU would score two more in the sixth to cut the Southern lead to two, as Cintron smashed an opposite field two-run home run.
 
The Sharks would score once more in the seventh but it wasn't enough as the Mocs scored once more to win the ballgame 9-7, setting up a winner-takes-all series finale.
 
Game 2 – NSU 12, FSC 0
 
After two quality baseball games in the first two games of the series, the Sharks unloaded on the Mocs in game three, scoring 12 runs on 18 hits including two home runs off of the bat of freshman catcher Jake Anchia.
 
The scoring began in the second inning, as Brandon Gomez crushed a solo home run over the left field wall, his 19^th round-tripper of the year. Anchia then hit his first home run of the ballgame in the third inning, a no-doubter over the trees in left field. The Sharks scored three more runs in the fifth to take a 5-0 lead, as Visbal smoked an RBI-single, following by a bases-clearing triple from Sebastian Diaz, scoring Visbal and Daniel Zardon.
 
The scoring continued in the sixth when Daniel Zardon laced a two-out single, driving in Anchia and Dylan Woods. Gomez and Visbal followed with back-to-back RBI-doubles, making the score 10-0. NSU scored their final two runs in the seventh, as Jake Anchia launched a two-run mammoth home run to take over the all-time single-season freshman home run record, previously held by Detroit Tigers outfielder J.D. Martinez.
 
While the offense was taking care of business, Julian Loret de Mola earned his sixth win and extended his scoreless streak to 14 innings. "LDM" has thrown 21 scoreless innings in his last 22 innings pitched. Alexander Kline, Cameron Churchill, Joe DiBenedetto and Devin Raftery all threw an inning of relief each to secure the series victory.
 
The Sharks will be back in action next Saturday afternoon, wrapping up their regular season schedule at Florida Tech. You can follow along with the Sharks all weekend on Twitter at @NSU_Baseball and tune in by following the links on the schedule page.