February 9, 2018 – Gainesville, FL – Nearly two weeks ago, Santa Fe College freshman Kyler Marquis hit a walk over homerun to lift the FCSAA #2/Baseball America #14 Saints to a walk off victory over Tallahassee CC, and on Friday afternoon in Bradenton he again saved a game, but this time defensively.
With the score tied at 3-3 in the bottom of the ninth and the Manatees of State College of Florida (8-3) batting and runners at first and second with one out, SF got the double play ball they needed. Jarrett Pico took the ground ball at second and threw to shortstop Mikey Navarrete who pump faked to first and turned and threw to third where the runner had rounded the bag. The throw sailed over the head of third baseman Kyler Marquis who turned and chased the ball down at the fence and turned and threw a laser to Haydn Cano at home plate to get the runner and send the game to extra innings.
Riding the momentum of the game saving play, Santa Fe (10-1) plated three runs in the top of the tenth inning, the first on a RBI single by Andrew Eyster. Pico came up big with a two out, two RBI single to add some insurance runs.
Garrett Mathes (2-0) finished off the game with his fourth inning in relief to earn the win. Devin Hemenway started on the hill and tossed six innings, allowing just one run on three hits with no walks and six strikeouts.
Parker Biederer finished the game with three hits and a run scored, Mikey Navarrete, Andrew Eyster, Cade Westbrook, and Haydn Cano had two hits each.
The Saints will be back on the road on Saturday, February 10 at South Florida State College for a double header starting at noon.
Watch live stats: www.iscorebaseball.com/santafesaints.
For complete schedules, stats, and more information please visit www.santafesaints.com.