LAKELAND, Fla. -- A five-run eighth by the Fire broke open a tight pitcher's duel as No. 1-ranked Southeastern University downed No. 7-ranked Bellevue University 8-0 on Saturday afternoon in a non-conference tilt at Ted A. Broer Stadium.
The Bruins wrap up their Spring Break trip through The Sunshine State with a 5-2 record while seeing their overall mark dip to 11-9. The Fire improve to 19-2 on the year on the strength of their eighth-straight victory.
Southeastern's Darien Smith (5-0) out-dueled Bellevue's Blake Crippen (2-1), working five innings of two-hit ball and striking out seven.
Crippen turned in a quality start for BU, scattering six hits across seven innings, striking out six, and allowing three runs, but Bruin hitters were unable to solve a triumvirate of Fire hurlers.
Neither team scored until the bottom of the third as both starters managed to keep the opposition off-balance. Christopher Munoz lined a two-out home run over the center field wall for a 1-0 lead.
The first two batters in the fourth reached for Southeastern with a sac bunt, moving them to second and third. Crippen struck out Gary Lora and initially appeared to escape the inning unharmed. Landrey Wilkerson dropped down a two-out bunt on the unsuspecting Bruin defense that Crippen reached for and made an off-balance throw to first for what looked to be the third out. The umpires got together and, after a brief discussion, overturned the call, allowing Isaac Nunez to score from third.
Alec Ackerman, CJ Townsend, and Brendan Luther managed to account for Bellevue's three hits in the game.
With a 2-0 lead, Ramsey David came on for Smith to open the sixth. He worked 3.1 scoreless innings of relief, striking out five before turning the ball over to flamethrower Colby Martin in the ninth.
The Fire added a third run in the seventh when Munoz narrowly beat out an around-the-horn double play that would have ended the inning.
SEU tacked on five more runs in the eighth with RBI singles from Lora and Matt Delay, a two-run double by Wilkerson, and a wild pitch to stretch the lead to 8-0.
David retired the first batter of the ninth before being relieved by Martin, who saw a pair of batters, getting a lineout from Nick Gravel and striking out Ryan David with near-triple-digit heat to close out the win.
Bellevue opens conference play next Friday, Mar. 15, with a 1 p.m. doubleheader against Valley City State University from John Stella Field at Brown Park. The Bruins and Vikings are slated to wrap up their series with another doubleheader at noon on Saturday, Mar. 16.
