Jacksonville, FL

Santa Fe (15-17) traveled to Florida State College at Jacksonville (FSCJ) (16-17) and won the offensive slugfest 17-13.

After giving up a solo home run in the bottom of the first inning, the Saints responded by scoring five runs in the top of the second. Akhil Nimmala drew a leadoff walk and ended up scoring on a wild pitch. JP Espinosa hit a single to score Maddox Lee, and Shawn Andrade singled to score Espinosa and Tucker Hansen. Santa Fe ended up taking a 5-1 lead after Ryan Chase reached base from an error, allowing Andrade to score.

The Manta Rays scored four runs in the bottom of the second, tying the game 5-5 with a trio of RBI-singles and a sacrifice line out.

Nimmala hit a leadoff solo home run in the top of the third, and Espinosa hit a single to score Hansen and give the Saints a 7-5 lead.

FSCJ had a five-run inning of their own in the bottom of the fourth. Smith Wortham drew a bases-loaded walk, and Carson McFarlin followed with a grand slam to give the Manta Rays a 10-7 lead. They extended their lead to 11-7 with a RBI-single in the bottom of the fifth.

Andrade drew a walk in the top of the sixth, and Chase followed up with a home run to cut the Saints' deficit to 11-9. Cole Carnell singled, and Hansen singled to score Carnell and cut the deficit to 11-10.

A two-out Saints error allowed FSCJ to extend their lead to 12-10 in the bottom of the sixth.

A two-out double by Carnell in the top of the seventh scored Chase and James Suarez, tying the game 12-12.

Lee drew a leadoff walk in the top of the eight, followed by a Hansen single and Samuel Castillo walk to load the bases with no outs. Back-to-back fielder's choices kept the bases loaded with two outs, and Andrade drew a walk to score Castillo and give the Saints a 13-12 lead.

Santa Fe scored four insurance runs in the top of the ninth to extend their lead to 17-12. Hayden Montanez drew a two-out bases-loaded walk, Lee scored on a wild pitch, Joseph Calise scored on an error, and Montanez scored from a Suarez single.

A pair of errors allowed FSCJ to score a run in the bottom of the ninth, but the Saints were able to secure a 17-13 victory.

Stephen Joyce earned the win for the Saints on the mound. Over two innings, Joyce recorded two strikeouts while giving up two hits and one unearned run. James Suarez pitched the final two innings, recording a strikeout and giving up one unearned run.

Maddox Lee led the Saints with three hits. Ryan Chase, Cole Carnell, and JP Espinosa all recorded two hits. Shawn Andrade led the team with four walks, and the Saints collectively drew 15 walks.

Head Coach Johnny Wiggs' thoughts: "It's always nice to win especially on the road. It wasn't pretty but proud of the guys for digging deep and getting the W. Hopefully we can build on it and have a good series vs SCF [State College of Florida] Thursday and Saturday. [Stephen] Joyce and [James] Suarez did a nice job on the mound the last 4 innings and our hitters finished the game strong scoring 10 runs in those last 4 innings."

The Saints will travel to State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota (21-12) on Thursday, March 26th for a 5:00pm first pitch. Santa Fe will host State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota for a doubleheader on Saturday, March 28th starting at 12:00pm.