The FCSAA #5 ranked Santa Fe Saints are 11-1 and showing no signs of slowing down after a 20-4 win over Abraham Baldwin on Monday afternoon in Gainesville. Matt Allen paced the offensive onslaught, going 2-for-3 with a three run homerun and four RBI. As a team the Saints scored their 20 runs on 17 hits, batting .405 in the process. The 11-1 start is the best 12 game start in the Johnny Wiggs era, dating back to 2007.
The big innings came in the third when SF lit the scoreboard up for eight runs on five hits, sending 12 batters to the plate. They continued to pour it on in the fourth, adding five more runs to make the score 16-1 through four innings.
The Saints scored two more in the seventh and two more in the eighth to make it a final score of 20-4. Santa Fe has now scored 87 runs this season, 42 of them coming in the last three games.
Joey Stillwell (1-0) started on the hill and pitched into the sixth inning, striking out six in 5.1 innings, allowing two earned runs. Nick Horvath, Call Graham, and Bryan Neal combined to finish out the game.
“It was nice to see Joey be able to stretch it out a little and have some success,” said SF Coach Johnny Wiggs. “I thought he itched great under some very windy conditions. Our hitters gave him a lot of runs to work with and had some great at bats. It was great to get some many guys out there.”
Twelve Santa Fe Saints had at least one hit, four players had multiple hit games. Cole Parks continued the hot start to his season, going 3-for-3 with three RBI, and two runs scored, Hugo Valdes was 2-for-4 with a RBI, and Nick Horvath was 2-for-5 with two RBI and two runs scored.
“It’s nice to get off to such a great start this season at 11-1, but we need to continue to improve as we head towards a very difficult conference season,” said Wiggs.
The Saints will play again at home on Wednesday, February 18 against FCSAA #1 St. Petersburg College. Santa Fe’s lone loss of the season came at the hands of the Titans on Feb. 6 in Clearwater.
For complete schedules and more information on Saints Baseball, please visit www.santafesaints.com. To see game photos and other updates, follow Santa Fe College Athletics on Facebook.
