The Seahawks baseball team split with Southeastern in Saturday's double header. Northwood took game one 12-5, before falling 8-7 in game two.
Northwood struck first in game one with two runs in the second inning. Brandon Crawford walked and advanced to second on a Casey Mullennix bunt. Joee Reyna followed with an RBI single up the middle making it 1-0. Gabby Mundo then singled to shallow right picking up the RBI and pushing the score to 2-0. Southeastern cut the deficit in half with a run in the bottom half of the inning. However, the Seahawks responded with two runs in the fourth inning.
Mullennix singled through the short stop and advanced to third on a Reyna double to deep left center. Damian Boyum then layed down a perfectly executed squeeze bunt extending the lead to 3-1. Mundo scored the final run of the inning on a fielder's choice making it 4-1. In the fifth inning, Northwood tacked on six more runs.
Carlos Contreras led the inning off with a single to second, then Berges reached on an error, and Ryan Palenzuela loaded the bases with a single through the hole at short. Crawford notched the first run with a fielder's choice pushing the lad to 5-1. A miscue by the Fire defense led to the sixth run and a Mundo single to center made it 7-1. Luis Roman cleared the bases with a triple to center field for a commanding 10-1 advantage.
Keivan Berges continued his home run streak putting one over the left field fence making it 11-1 in the sixth, but the Fire got a run back in the bottom half (11-2). Berges scored the final Northwood run of the game in the ninth with a double to lead 12-2. Southeastern battled back in the bottom of the ninth platting three runs but fell by a final of 12-5.
Steven Bruce picked up his third win moving to 3-0 on the year as a starter. He went six strong innings, striking out eight. Mundo led the way with four hits, while Mullennix had three.
In game two, the Seahawks again scored first with three runs in the third inning. Jonathan Cata led the inning off with a single before Tyler Hitt pinch ran and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Mundo and Fuenmayor walked to load the bases. Berges then cleared the bases with a deep double to right center scoring three runs for the early 3-0 lead. However, Southeastern knotted the game at 3-3 in the bottom half of the inning.
Northwood retook the lead in the fifth when Mundo led the inning off with a single through short. Contreras followed with a single through second moving Mundo to third. Berges notched his fourth RBI with a single to shallow left field for the 4-3 lead. Again the Fire tied the game up with a run in the sixth inning at 4-4.
In the ninth inning, Roman reached on walk before being replaced on the bases by Hitt who stole second and third base and then scores on a wild pitch regaining a 5-4 lead. Southeastern was able to tie the game up in the bottom half forcing the contest into the extra innings.
The Seahawks began the tenth inning with Contreras reaching on an error and scoring on a Palenzuela two run homer to right center to lead 7-5. Unfortuantley, the Fire rallied in the bottom half with three runs to come away with the 8-7 win.
Mundo and Berges led the way with two hits apiece. Pat Barrington picked up his first loss of the season falling to 2-1 overall.
Head Coach Jeremy Kennedy said following the game, "Overall it was a good weekend for us. The last game was a good battle. We had some big plays and so did they. I am very proud of how we competed all weekend. We have to give their hitter credit, they had two big home runs they really cost us. This was one of those games that hurts but we will grow from it. We are building our identity and team character and this weekend was big for that.
Northwood returns to action on Tuesday when they travel to take on #8 NCAA Division 2 Nova. The first pitch is set for 6:00 p.m.
