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CARY, N.C. – It took twelve innings and countless nail-biting moments for the No. 6 Nova Southeastern University baseball team (40-16, 18-6 SSC) to walk off on the No. 1 Franklin Pierce University Ravens (48-8, 20-1 NE-10) on Saturday night, winning by a score of 4-3. Jancarlos Cintron-Torres came up with the big hit for the Sharks, smoking a 2-2 fastball to right field to score Kavan Thompson. Devin Raftery earned the win, tossing five innings of scoreless baseball.
"Both teams came out and battled," said head coach Greg Brown. "For us, the way guys came out and made plays from the start Mateo had, to Fleming bridging it to Raft and Raft taking us home, to Visbal's hit in the ninth and Yankee's walk off, I'm just so proud of our guys."
The Sharks jumped out to an early 2-0 lead after Franklin Pierce kicked the ball around in the bottom of the first, allowing two Sharks to reach base. With runners on second and third, Daniel Zardon laced a single to centerfield, scoring Andres Visbal and Brandon Gomez.
Franklin Pierce answered in the top of the fourth inning, scoring two runs against NSU's starter Alex Mateo to tie the ballgame at 2-2. The Ravens then took the lead in the top of the seventh, chasing Alex Mateo out of the game after scoring one run. Steven Fleming came in to relieve the Sharks and did just what he was asked, getting a strikeout and a fly out to end the top of the seventh and leave runners stranded on first and third.
After failing to score in the bottom of the seventh and eighth innings, the Sharks were down to their last three outs. Sebastian Diaz drew a leadoff walk, followed by a Dylan Woods sacrifice bunt that moved Diaz over to second. Cintron then walked and Kevin Suarez struck out swinging, leaving it up to Visbal to be the hero for the time being. The junior first baseman smoked a fastball up the middle, scoring Diaz to tie the game at 3-3.
The Sharks were 90 feet away from winning the ballgame in the 10th and 11th innings, but left a runner on third in both innings. Devin Raftery kept the scored tied at 3-3, giving the Sharks opportunity after opportunity to win the contest. Thompson led off the 12th with a hit-by-pitch, followed by a Diaz sacrifice bunt that moved Thompson to second. After Woods grounded out, Thompson advanced to third on a wild pitch and Jancarlos Cintron took care of the rest. With two outs and two strikes, the junior from Pureto Rico singled to right field, allowing Thompson to score from third and the celebration began as the dugout sprinted at Cintron to celebrate.
The Sharks will play Lander on Tuesday night at 7:00 p.m. here in Cary, N.C.
Stay tuned to nsusharks.com for updates on the NSU baseball team and follow the team on Twitter at @NSU_Baseball.
