LEWISTON, Idaho – Box Score The top-seeded Southeastern University baseball team made its presence felt in the 2021 Avista-NAIA World Series on Saturday, powering their way to a 25-13 victory over the ninth-seeded LSU Shreveport Pilots in to advance into the winner’s bracket.

The 25 runs scored by the Fire came on 23 hits, including five home runs. The 25 SEU runs scored tied the World Series record for runs scored in a single game, set by Lewis-Clark State (Idaho) vs. Grand Canyon (Ariz.) in 1987.

After trailing 2-0 entering the bottom of the first, the Fire quickly knotted things up 2-2  in the bottom half of the frame on a two-run home run off the bat of senior first baseman Nick Bottari, who belted his 22nd home run of the season. Nick’s long ball also etched his name into the Fire record books as he became the Southeastern all-time career leader in home runs at 36.

“Just knowing the type of players who have come through this program before makes it exciting,” Bottari said. “But at the end of the day, all those numbers don’t mean much unless we’re winning games and I’m happy that we came out today and got a win and we are going to keep moving forward.”

An RBI-triple by Carter Bridge and RBI-single by Austin James put the Fire ahead of the Pilots 4-2 in the bottom of the second. 

Senior outfielder Anthony Carrera belted his first home run of the day in the bottom of the third, a solo shot to right field that capped off a four-run frame for the Fire and put them ahead of the Pilots 8-3.

Southeastern opened things up in the bottom of the fifth with a monster 10-run inning, marking the first time since 2005 a team has scored 10 or more runs in a single inning in the World Series. Carrera notched his second long ball of the day in the frame, a grand slam home run to deep right-center. Austin James cemented the historic frame with a solo dinger to center field to put the Fire up 18-4.

“My hype speech to the guys before the game was I don’t know about ya’ll, but before I made this commitment to come here at Southeastern, I said I was going to play in a World Series.” Carrera said. “I told them let’s show people why we are here. Let’s go out there and compete and not swing at stuff that we don’t like and do the little things right.”

Bridge blasted the fifth homer of the day for the Fire in the bottom of the eighth, a two run beam to left that put the Fire ahead of the Pilots 25-13.

Senior right-handed pitcher Christian Camacho earned the winning decision on the mound for SEU, improving to 11-1 on the season after logging five innings, allowing four earned runs on eight hits, walking two, and striking out six.

The 23 hits posted by the Fire bats came two short of equating the World Series single-game record.

“I think we controlled our zone and got pitches we could handle instead of pitcher’s pitches,” remarked SEU head coach Adrian Dinkel. “I think we have been doing a good job of that the last couple of weeks and hopefully continue that trend going into next week.”

The Fire will take on the fifth-seeded Georgia Gwinnett College Grizzlies in the winner’s bracket on Monday May 31 at 6:00 p.m. eastern.

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