Lakeland, Fla-- The USCB baseball team fell to the No. 4 Southeastern University Fire by a score of 7-6 this evening at Ted A. Broer Stadium.

The Sand Sharks jumped on the scoreboard in the third inning when Chris Vazquez hit an RBI single to right center, scoring Cameron Smith. The Fire stuck back in the bottom of the frame when catcher Torrence Sumerlin knocked himself in with a home run.

The score was knotted going into the bottom of the fourth inning before Southeastern's Marvin Malone was able to reach home on an error. Malone then added a home run in the bottom of the sixth inning to put the score 3-1.

The Fire added three more runs in the bottom of the eighth when Dan Valerio hit a 2-RBI double down the left field line. Designated hitter Ivan Nunez then knocked in Valerio with his RBI triple to left center. Shortstop Adam De La Cruz then hit a sacrifice fly to right field to score Nunez and end the scoring for The Fire.

The Sand Sharks sparked to life, though, in the top of ninth when Vazquez hit a 1-run single to center field, bringing in Matthews. The Fire then loaded the bases and Alex Murphy hit a 2-RBI single. A wild pitch then allowed Cole Hamilton to score the 5th run for the Sand Sharks before Graham Hatfield brought Murphy in with an RBI single. Unfortunately, the ninth inning rally ended there with the Sand Sharks coming up just one run shy.

The team will look to bounce back tomorrow when they face the Fire again for a double-header beginning at noon. You can watch the games live at www.seufire.com/watch.