LAKELAND, Fla. --- Gio Pappas homered twice for the University of St. Francis baseball team, but it was not enough to put a halt to newly-crowned NAIA No.1 ranked Southeastern University's season-opening winning streak. The Fire made it 26 wins in a row with their 11-4 victory on Wednesday night. 

Earlier in the day, Southeastern moved from the No.3 spot in the NAIA Coaches' Poll to the top billing.

The Fire jumped out in front 4-0 after two innings and kept that lead until the sixth inning when Pappas ruined Logan Walters' shutout bid with his first home run of the day.  Walters (2-0) left the game after that inning but not before recording 14 of his 18 outs via strikeouts. He scattered four hits over his six innings, while allowing just one walk.

For the game, three Southeastern pitchers combined for 17 strikeouts.

The hosts put the game out of reach one half inning later when they put up six runs, including three on Isaac Nunez's three run home run. After delivering a pair of hits and three RBI on Tuesday, Nunez went 3 for 4 with four runs batted in on Wednesday.

A wild pitch and an error in the seventh inning brought in USF's next two runs before Pappas homered again in the eighth inning. Both he and Marshall McDonnell had a pair of hits for the Saints (4-11).     

Up Next
The Saints compete in the Warner University (Fla.) Tournament each of the next three days beginning with a split doubleheader against St. Thomas University (Fla.) and host Warner on Thursday.

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