RedStorm baseball rains on Fire
Rio Grande Sports Information
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - The University of Rio Grande jumped to an eight-run fourth inning lead and never looked back, cruising to a 10-4 win over Southeastern (Fla.) University in the NAIA Baseball National Championship Opening Round at Embry-Riddle University's Sliwa Stadium.
The RedStorm, seeded fifth in the five-time double-elimination Embry-Riddle Bracket, won for the 13th straight time to improve to 33-20.
Head coach Brad Warnimont's club will face top-seeded Auburn University-Montgomery in the final game of the tourney's opening day, Tuesday at 6 p.m.
The No. 4 seed Fire slipped to 38-20 loss and will play in an elimination contest against either No. 2 seed Embry-Riddle or third-seeded Bryan (Tenn.) on Wednesday at 10 a.m.
Rio Grande sandwiched three-run uprisings in the second and fourth innings around a two-run third inning to take an 8-0 lead.
Senior Grant Tamane (Pickering, Ontario, Canada) had a run-scoring single in the three-run second, before a two-run double by senior Kyle Findley (Cincinnati, OH) in the third made it 5-0.
Junior Kirk Yates belted a three-run home run in the fourth which extended the lead to 8-0.
Southeastern got on the board with a fourth inning run, but Rio answered in the top of the fifth when senior Malduino Gonzalez led off with a double and scored on a one-out, ground-rule double by sophomore Carlos Flores (Guayanilla, Puerto Rico) to push the lead back to 9-1.
The Fire drew to within 9-4 after scratching out three runs against Rio Grande sophomore starter Trent Downs (Chillicothe, OH) in the home half of the seventh inning, but the RedStorm set the final score on a run-scoring hit by Findley in the eighth.
Findley and Yates both finished with two hits and three RBI, while Flores and Tamane both had two hits and one run batted in. Gonzalez and freshman Cody Blackburn (Amanda, OH) also had two hits each in the winning effort.
Downs allowed nine hits and the four runs - three earned - while walking one and striking out six for his sixth win in seven decisions.
Luiz Diaz was 3-for-3 in the loss for Southeastern, while Sean Anderson and Stetson McCollin both had two hits and a run batted in.
Patrick Kinney started and took the loss for the Fire, allowing five hits, four walks and seven runs over 3-1/3 innings.
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