Gainesville, FL

Santa Fe (17-20, 6-16) hosted Polk State College (24-17, 11-11) on Thursday, April 2nd and won 15-7. The Saints tallied 13 hits and drew seven walks.

James Suarez hit a leadoff single in the bottom of the first, and Wyatt Tesar put two runs on the board with a home run. Ryan Chase followed up with a triple and scored on a Cole Carnell ground out, giving the Saints a 3-0 lead.

Tucker Hansen scored in the bottom of the second on a sacrifice fly by Maddox Lee, extending the lead to 4-0.

Polk State scored a run in the top of the third with a walk followed by a triple, cutting their deficit to 4-1.

In the bottom of the third, Shawn Andrade singled to score Chase, and a double by Hansen scored Akhil Nimmala and Andrade to extend the Santa Fe lead to 8-1.

Carnell hit a single in the bottom of the fourth to score Suarez and maintain a 9-2 lead.

Three RBI-singles in the top of the sixth allowed Polk State to cut the Saints' lead to 9-5. Chase doubled in the bottom of the sixth to score Suarez and extend the lead to 10-5.

A two-run homer in the top of the seventh cut the Saints' lead to 10-7, but Samuel Castillo hit a two-run homer of his own to score Andrade (who drew a leadoff walk) and put the Saints back up 12-7.

A bases-loaded hit by pitch to Maddox Lee scored Conner Brown, and Castillo followed up with a single to score Hansen and end the game in eight innings 15-7.

Ryan Chase led the Saints with three hits, and Samuel Castillo led the team with four RBIs. James Suarez, Cole Carnell, and Shawn Andrade all drew two walks.

Brady Wright started and earned the win, recording seven strikeouts while allowing two hits, two walks, and one earned run. Kaden Howell closed the game with one strikeout and two hits allowed in one and one-third innings.

The Saints will travel to Polk State on Saturday, April 4th for a doubleheader starting at 1:00pm.