FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Jancarlos Cintron added some late insurance with the bat in the bottom of the eighth, while reliever
Ryan Maya picked up the 'W' on his birthday as No. 1 Nova Southeastern held off St. Thomas (Fla.) Tuesday night to improve to 5-0 on the season.
Cintron opened the contest with a lead-off triple before finishing 2-for-3 at the plate with a pair of runs scored, but even more impressive was his glove on a night in which runs were at a premium. The Sharks' second baseman made diving stop after diving stop up the middle, none bigger though than his key stab in a one-run ball game in the fifth with two outs and a pair of Bobcats' runners in scoring position.
"Yankee (Cintron) was laying out, making plays, and finishing those plays," said head coach
Greg Brown. "I think that's the hardest part about those type plays, and he was able to do that routinely tonight."
Along with Maya, center fielder
Kevin Suarez celebrated his birthday with a 3-for-4 effort. In addition,
Jake Anchia belted his second home run of the year with a solo shot in the first, with
Ryan Alvarez and
Christian Kuzemka each adding two hits apiece.
Using a pitcher-by-committee approach, Nova Southeastern leaned on a combined five pitchers in the victory, holding St. Thomas (Fla.) scoreless for the final six innings. Starter
Kyle Kilbourne tossed three innings before handing the ball to Maya, who threw two shutout frames as the Sharks clung to a 3-2 advantage.
For the fourth time in five games, Nova Southeastern opened the scoring in the bottom of the first after
Dylan Woods drove in Cintron on a liner into left center. Two batters later, Anchia displayed his opposite field power with a long ball over the wall in right to put the Sharks on top 2-0.
Cintron would cross home on a wild pitch in the second to extend the lead to 3-0, but a pair of sacrifice flies in the ensuing inning by St. Thomas (Fla.) trimmed Nova Southeastern's edge to just 3-2.
The same one-run margin would remain until the bottom of the eighth when Cintron hit a high chopper up the middle to plate Kuzemka from third following the first-baseman's one-out triple. Kuzemka's triple marked the third of the night for the Sharks.
Two days after recording the win in his first appearance in two seasons, closer
Josh Glick slammed the door shut for his first save following 14 pitches in the ninth.
"I'm really proud of the effort from our guys tonight," Brown added. "This was a tough game, that's a really good club over there. I'm looking forward to see how we do this weekend."
NSU will hit the road for the first time this season, opening up a three-game set at North Georgia on Friday. For complete coverage the action, log onto
NSUSharks.com or follow the Sharks on Twitter @NSU_Baseball.
Tweets of the Night
