LAKELAND, Fla. --- Looking to put the first dent in Southeastern University's armor, the University of St. Francis was in line to do just that until the NAIA No.3 ranked Fire rallied to score seven runs over its final two at bats to gain an 11-6 victory on Tuesday morning. The win kept Southeastern perfect on the season at 25-0.

The hosts looked to take care of business early on with three runs over the first two innings before things settled down for the Saints. USF answered Abdel Guadalupe's leadoff home run with Luke Ketchum's solo shot to center field in the second inning. For the senior centerfielder, it was his second home run of the season.

The Saints (4-10) forced the second tie of the game at threemall in the fifth inning when they opened the frame by having each of their first three batters reach base. Noah Kararo (single) scored the first run on a wild pitch with John Peterson (single) crossing the plate with the tying run on an RBI groundout from Jake LaSota.

The first three batters also reached to open the sixth inning aided by two Southeastern errors. Ketchum, Peterson, and Josh Kirnbauer all made the Fire pay for their mistakes with RBI singles from Ketchum and Peterson and a sacrifice fly from Kirnbauer.

USF's 6-4 lead lasted until the bottom of the seventh inning when Sam Faith followed a hit batsmen and a single with a line drive home run to right field to put Southeastern back in front 7-6. Faith, who went 3 for 4 with five runs batted in on the day, added a sacrifice fly in the Fire's four run eighth inning.

Isaac Nunez, who had a two run double for Southeastern in the second inning, drove in his third run of the game in the eighth inning, as well.

Guadalupe went 3 for 5 at the top of the order as part of Southeastern's 15 hit attack.

Ketchum and Peterson provided four of USF's six hits with a pair each. Ketchum also scored twice.

Quinn McGuire (0-2) suffered the loss for the Saints. Colin Kelly got the start and struck out five batters in his 3 1/3 innings.

Bryce Moyle (1-0) put a halt to USF's middle inning scoring frenzy by closing out the game with four innings of scoreless relief. He struck out seven batters against two walks and just one hit in that time.

Up Next
The Saints will get one more crack at stopping Southeastern's season opening win streak on Wednesday when the two teams meet at 1:30 pm Central time.

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