SAINT LEO, Florida – The Lee baseball team exploded for 12 runs in the last three innings and posted a 17-7 victory over host Saint Leo University in the opening round of the South Region tournament on Thursday afternoon.
The Flames will face Rollins College (Florida) on Friday at 4:30 p.m. due to the possibility of rain, at Thomas B. Southard Stadium. Saint Leo will be pitted against Delta State. The Statesmen were losers to Rollins in the other contest on Friday and will seek to stay alive in the loser's bracket of the four-team field.
Over their last two appearances in the Gulf South Conference Championship game against Shorter and the South Region opener, the Flames have banged out 36 hits and put 36 runs on the scoreboard. In Thursday's win Lee had nine extra-base hits including four homeruns, a triple and four doubles. Every batter in the lineup but one had a hit. Six had multiple hits.
The Lions jumped on top 2-0 in the bottom of the first inning and Lee pitching ace Jack Nedrow was forced to leave the game with shoulder problems. And along came Sam – Sam Fulton that is. The big right-hander pitched six innings of six-hit ball and allowed only two earned runs.
The Flames fought back and tied the game at two in the top of the third. Joshua Perez tripled high off the wall in right field. Jake Edwards and Thomas Zazzaro walked to load the bases. Perez scored on a wild pitch and Edwards tied the game on a ground out by Dylan Standifer.
Lee went ahead in the fourth inning and never trailed again. Cam Suto, who had a monster day at the plate, blasted a solo homer. Perez walked and scored on a double by Edwards. In the fifth the margin reached 5-2 on a homer by Jared Demkowicz.
Nine batters went to the plate in the seventh inning and five big runs were posted to put Lee up 10-3. In the inning Brandon Daniels reached on an error and Suto drove him home with a two-base hit. Suto scored on a single by Perez. Zazzaro drew his third walk of the afternoon and teammate Justen Freeman connected for his second homerun of the year, plating Zazzaro. Standifer singled and later scored on a ground out before the inning ended.
In the bottom of the same inning, the Lions threatened with a double and a single that scored a run. They had the bases loaded when Adrian Roa lifted a short fly ball to right field. Perez made the catch. The runner at third was halfway home and decided to go back to third but in the meantime the runner at second had advanced to third causing the Lions confusion on the base paths. The Flames took advantage of the situation and tagged the runner out who was trying to retreat back to second, completing the double play.
In the bottom of the eighth Saint Leo trimmed the Lee lead to 10-7 but the Flames batted around for the second time in the top of the ninth inning. The big seven-run rally featured a homerun by Standifer, a double by Isaac Quinones and Suto's second two-bagger of the afternoon, and singles by Freeman, Daniels and Edwards.
Suto was the only Lee player with three hits. He also had three RBI and scored three runs. Freeman and Standifer had two hits apiece. They also drove in three runs and scored a pair of runs. Edwards had two hits, two RBI and scored two runs.
Fulton (7-2) was the winning pitcher. Sean Casteel worked an inning and allowed three earned runs. Alan Carter came on for 2/3 of an inning and posted two big strikeouts. Brycen Jewell pitched an inning for the Flames.
Jared Beck was the losing Saint Leo pitcher. He worked 3.2 innings and gave up four earned runs. Three other Lions followed Beck to the mound. Buck Anderson had three of Saint Leo's 11 hits.
"I am really proud of the team today. It would have been easy to get rattled losing Nedrow in the first, and their response then and when Saint Leo got the three-run homer late was impressive," said Lee Coach Mark Brew after the Flames improved to 32-22 on the year while Saint Leo dropped to 35-16.
"We got great production up and down the lineup and are swinging the bats well. Our bullpen found a way to piece together the outs and Fulton once again gave us a huge performance. We will have another big challenge tomorrow with Rollins. We are looking forward to it," Brew concluded.
