FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The Nova Southeastern University baseball team (10-7, 3-0) completed the sweep of the Eckerd Tritons (6-7, 1-5) on Saturday afternoon, winning by scores of 7-4 and 12-6.
Matt Hardy and
Jonny Ortiz earned the wins in each of their starts, moving their records to 4-0 and 2-1, respectively. Danny Zardon, JanCarlos Cintron,
Brandon Gomez and
Andres Visbal provided the pop, each smashing a home run on the sunny afternoon at the NSU Baseball Complex.
Game 1 – NSU 7, Eckerd 4 The Sharks got things started in the bottom of the third inning, as Gomez flew out to deep centerfield, scoring
Dallas Perez from third. NSU broke the game open in the fifth inning, beginning with a RBI-double off of the bat of
Sebastian Diaz, scoring Cintron. The Sharks then loaded the bases for
Michael Hernandez, who wore the first pitch he saw in the back to score Diaz from third.
Kevin Suarez and Visbal then extended the score to 5-0 with back-to-back RBI-singles.
With the score 5-0 heading into the top of the sixth inning,
Matt Hardy's 18-inning scoreless streak came to a close when allowed two runs (one earned) to an Eckerd team that had an extremely tough time figuring out the junior right-hander. Hardy finished the day with 6.1 innings pitched and three strikeouts, earning his fourth win of the season.
NSU would tack on another run in the bottom of the seventh inning when Perez drove a ball deep to centerfield, scoring the pinch-runner
Jacob Blackiston from third. The Tritons would battle back and tack on a run in the top of the eighth to bring the score to 6-3. NSU would give their pitcher
Devin Raftery, who came on in relief of Hardy in the seventh inning, an extra insurance run in the bottom of the eighth inning, as Zardon sent a ball deep to centerfield, scoring Diaz from third. Zardon's sacrifice-fly was the Sharks' third of the game, one shy of the single-game program record.
The Tritons homered and strung together two other hits in the ninth in an effort to comeback, but it was too little, too late as Raftery shut the door to complete the win.
Game 2 – NSU 12, Eckerd 6 The story of game two was the long ball, as the Sharks smashed five home runs, the most home runs hit at home in a single game since May 1, 2011 when NSU clocked six home runs against Florida Southern in a 24-15 win over the Mocs. Gomez began the home run parade, sending his sixth home run of the year over the left field wall in the bottom of the first inning to tie the game at 1-1.
Andres Visbal and Cintron followed in the bottom of the second, crushing two towering home runs over the scoreboard in left field.
With the score at 4-1 in the bottom of the third, Zardon launched his third home run of the series and first of the game over the right field fence, extended the Sharks' lead to 5-1. Eckerd responded by scoreless two runs (unearned) off of
Jonny Ortiz in the fourth inning, cutting the NSU lead to two. Ortiz finished the afternoon with seven innings pitched, allowing six hits and striking out five batters.
In the bottom of the fifth inning, Cintron drove in Woods in what was one of his two sacrifice-fly's in the game, the second coming in the seventh inning. Visbal and Gomez added RBI-doubles in the sixth and seventh innings, respectively, before Zardon smashed his fourth home run of the series and second of the game over the left field fence to make the score 11-3.
After Eckerd homered off of
Devin Pellien in the eighth inning to bring the score to 11-5, Perez drove in his second run of the game on a single to left field. The Tritons would threaten to score a bulk of runs in the top of the ninth, but managed to only score one run, as
Joe DiBenedetto shut the door on Eckerd, completing the sweep.
Tweets of the Night
