February 7, 2015

Gainesville, FL – The Santa Fe Saints improved to 6-1 on Saturday afternoon, defeating South Florida State College in two closely contested games, 5-4 and 6-3. 

SF (6-1) trailed 1-0 early in game one but fought back to tie the score in the second on back to back hits by Nick Horvath and Hugo Valdes.  Horvath and Valdes struck again in the fourth, combining to knock in three runs to put the Saints ahead 4-1.

South Florida (4-3) answered in the fifth with three runs to tie it up, setting up Santa Fe's late game heroics.  Cole Parks would single in the seventh inning and then steal second with Matt Allen at the dish.  Allen came through in the clutch, delivering a walk off RBI single to right field for the SF win.

Call Graham (1-0) earned the win with 2.1 innings of relief work, allowing no runs and no hits.  Trent Johnson made his second start of the season and picked up the no decision with 4.2 innings.  Johnson allowed four runs, only two of which were earned.  He struck out three and walked none.

Horvath finished game one 2-for-2 with two runs and a RBI, Valdes was 2-for-2 as well, with two doubles and three RBI.

The Saints bullpen was called upon again in game two to help hold down SFCC, and again they answered the bell.  Walker Burgess (2-0) earned the win with 3.0 innings pitched, allowing two runs (0 earned) and three strikeouts.  He has yet to allow an earned run in 5.2 innings of work out of the pen.

Bryan Neal pitched a scoreless seventh for the save, his first of the season.  Clint Duke started on the hill and pitched 3.1 innings, allowing one hit and one walk.

Santa Fe fell behind 1-0 for the second game in a row, this time in the fourth inning.  Just like the first game, SF answered, scoring three runs in the bottom half of the frame, on a two out RBI single by Alex Aristy, a steal of home by Nick Horvath on a double steal, and a RBI single by Tyler Kinney.

The Saints added three insurance runs in the fifth on a three run homerun by Horvath, putting an exclamation point on his career day.

Horvath lit up the box score for the second game in a row, going 2-for-3 with a homeruin and three RBI, Kinney was 2-for-4 with a RBI, and Chandler Rodriguez was 2-for-4 with a run scored.

Santa Fe will welcome Tallahassee CC to Gainesville on Wednesday, February 11 for a single game at 3:00 PM.

For complete schedules and more information on Saints Baseball, please visit www.santafesaints.com.  To see game photos and other updates, follow Santa Fe College Athletics on Facebook.

-30-