FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – To say the Nova Southeastern offense was clicking Monday evening may very well be an understatement. The top-ranked Sharks scored early and plenty more than often, cruising to an eventual 19-7 victory at home over Notre Dame College.
Nova Southeastern collected 18 hits in the effort, and jumped out to a whopping 18-2 cushion midway through the ball game after batting around in both the third and fourth innings. Jeremy Vasquez and Brandon Gomez connected on back-to-back homers for the second time this season as the duo combined for nine RBI's before being pulled prior to the fifth inning.
Jake Anchia drove in three runs for the Sharks, while Kevin Suarez and Dylan Woods each tallied two RBI's apiece atop the order. Sebastian Diaz went 4-for-5 at the plate, and even relief pitcher Dillon Maya registered a hit on the stat sheet with a single in the eighth. To put the ridiculous offensive display into perspective, every Nova Southeastern starter had reached base at least twice – by the fourth inning.
The Sharks calmly opened the scoring in the home half of the first following a RBI-groundout off the bat of Vasquez. The offense soon amped up another notch, though, by combining for 17 runs in the ensuing three innings.
Suarez doubled Nova Southeastern's lead with a single through the ride side in the second before Vasquez hammered a grand slam beyond the wall in left. Gomez then followed Vasquez with a big fly to straight away center for his seventh home run of the season.
Keyed by RBI's from Anchia and Andrew Liberty, the Sharks pushed across five more runs across in the third. As if that wasn't already enough, head coach Greg Brown's club came back with six more in the fourth – the second six-run frame through the opening four innings.
Still comfortably in front 18-4 in the bottom of the eighth, Diaz tagged a RBI-double off the fence in left center for good measure as Nova Southeastern tallied at least 13 runs for the third time in its last four contests.
On the mound, southpaw Jonny Ortiz moved to 1-0 after yielding just two earned runs in five innings of work.
Redshirt freshman Ian Valenzuela recorded his first two career hits in the 'W', finishing 2-for-5 at the dish with a pair of runs scored.
NSU will continue its run of non-conference matchups by hosting Felician Tuesday at 6 p.m. ET. For complete coverage of the action, log onto NSUSharks.com or follow the Sharks on Twitter @NSU_Baseball.
