TU secures seed in Sun Conference tournament

Published 7:00 pm Monday, April 27, 2015

Staff report

THOMASVILLE — After a three hour rain delay, the Thomas University baseball team secured the sixth and final seed of the Sun Conference tournament Saturday afternoon defeating Florida Memorial University 6-2 on Senior Day.

The contest started off as a pitchers’ duel and slowly became a one-sided offensive affair by the Night Hawks. In the bottom of the third, Thomas scored two runs to take the 2-0 advantage. First baseman Brent Slaughter and second baseman Austin Corbitt led the inning off with back-to-back singles. After Slaughter stole third on a head’s play, shortstop Jake Desuyo laid a suicide squeeze bunt down the third base line that scored Slaughter from third. FMU’s starting pitcher, Luis Suarez, over threw the first baseman allowing Desuyo to reach safely. With two outs in the inning and bases loaded, Suarez threw a wild pitch to the backstop to score Corbitt from third.

The Hunter Green and White increased their lead to 3-0 in the bottom of the fourth when Suarez threw his second wild pitch of the game with runners on second and third.

With the 3-0 lead, Thomas would plate two insurance runs in the bottom of the seventh off FMU’s reliever, Roberto Solis. Center fielder Brandon Singer reached on a walk and then moved to third on a single to right by right fielder Casey Mannion. After catcher Kaleb Holbrook was intentionally walked to load the bases with one out, left fielder Jeremy Crosby walked to score the fourth Night Hawk run of the game. During the next at bat, designated hitter Josh Bruijn drove in Thomas’ fifth run of the game with a chopper to third.

A passed ball in the bottom of the eighth scored Thomas’ sixth and final run of the contest to give them the 6-0 advantage heading into the final inning.

Thomas’ starting pitcher, Ben Overman, worked a complete game, racking up eight consecutive scoreless innings in the effort. The right hander surrendered FMU’s only runs of the contest in the bottom of the ninth on a two-run homerun by first baseman Casey Johnston. Overman (2-4) struck out six of the 32 batters he faced while surrendering only nine hits en route to the 6-2 victory.

The Night Hawks improve to 22-23-1, 13-13 TSC, on the year while Florida Memorial drops to 7-39, 2-21 TSC.

During pregame Senior Day festivities, the Night Hawks honored seniors Bo Beauchamp, Josh Bruijn, Corey Conway, Austin Corbitt, Jeremy Crosby, Jake Desuyo, Justin Hicks, Kaleb Holbrook, Damon Jackson, Ben Overman, Brandon Singer, and Brent Slaughter. The team also handed out team awards for 2015 season. Freshman Jalbert Melo was named the Best Hitter while freshman Tate Lambert received the Best Pitcher award. Desuyo was named the Most Valuable Player while Slaughter received the Academic Award. For only the second time in the program’s history, two individuals received the Gonzalez-Parramore award. This award is presented to the student-athlete(s) that best exemplifies the character and qualities that Thomas’ coaching staff deems essential in a Night Hawk Baseball player. This year’s recipients included Holbrook and Hicks.

The Night Hawks return to action on Friday, May 1, when they travel to Ft. Myers, Fla., to face No. 3 Northwood University in the opening round of the Sun Conference tournament. First pitch is set for 11:00 a.m. at the City of Palms Park.