The Florida Memorial University baseball team topped the NAIA’s No. 14 ranked St. Thomas Bobcats 5-2 at Harry T. Moore Field on Friday night. The victory marked the first win over St. Thomas since February 3, 2015, spanning a 25 game losing streak to its Sun Conference rivals.
Lions’ starting pitcher Rafael Fernandez set the tone, only allowing two runs in 8.1 innings of work. The lefty would finish his outing with twelve strikeouts while yielding five hits.
Florida Memorial struck first in the second inning, stringing together singles by Yunior Sanchez, Zachary Urso, Manuel Mollinedo and Carson Sorrell to take a 3-0 lead.
The Lions would add two more runs in the bottom of the third inning. Alex Gomez walked to start the inning, Jalen Young doubled to left field scoring Gomez. Young stole third base and was able to come home after a throwing error by the Bobcats catcher Daniel Mondejar to increase the lead to 5-0.
The two runs scored in the third inning would end up being needed insurance runs.
St. Thomas produced two runs in the top of the ninth, threatening to get back into the ball game. After coming into the game in the ninth, Carson Sorrell stayed on to earn the save, despite giving up a walk in the top half of the ninth.
At the plate for the Lions, Jalen Young was 2-for-4 with 2 runs scored, a double, and a run batted in. Manuel Mollinedo was 1-for-3 with 2 RBI and Carson Sorrell was 1-for-4 with a run driven home. Alex Gomez and Young each had a stolen base.