St. Petersburg, FL - On Saturday, the Saints traveled to finish the series with St. Petersburg College with a doubleheader. The Saints opened the series with St. Pete on Thursday in Gainesville with a 10-8 victory.  Today, they started off where they left off, only improving their pitching for the Game 1 win. St. Pete came back to win Game 2. The Saints record moves to 17-12 in the Citrus Conference and 29-18 overall.

How It Happened – Game 1 of Saturday's Doubleheader

Santa Fe got off the bus with hot bats and jumped out to a 4-0 lead after the top of one and an 11-0 lead after two. The first game of the doubleheader is set for seven innings, and the Saints only needed five as they run-ruled the Titans after five with a commanding 17-0 vicotry.

Multiple players had more than one hit, but the Saints were led by the meat of their line up as nine players collected at least one RBI. The Saints were led by BJ Graham, who had four hits. Grant Gallagher, AJ Barrios, and Cory Filley all had three hits as well. Wyatt Campbell recorded three RBIs. The bats were alive and firing on all cylinders. 

Justin Jackson was also stellar from the mound as he threw another complete game, albeit it was a five-inning game due to his teammates' hot bats. Jackson threw very few pitches, struck out three and gave up only two hits. Jackson leads NJCAA Region VIII in wins with nine, and it showed today. 

How It Happened – Game 2

Game 2 started off a little slow for the Saints as the Titans were able to push one run across the plate in the bottom of the first to take a 1-0 lead.  The Saints, however, battled back and held St. Pete scoreless in the second. With a Drake Harman right-field homer, the Saints were back even with the Titans. Both teams were in a second game hit fest as the Saints and Titans each had 10 hits.

Anthony Fimiano singled in the top of the fifth to move a run across, giving the Saints a 2-1 lead, but it didn't last long as the Titans battled back to get three in the bottom of the fifth and take the 4-2 lead. In the back-and-forth affair, Trey Freeman and Landon Rogers both singled to move the Saints back on top 5-4. Again, SPC pushed two across for the one-run lead, but BJ Graham singled to tie the game at 7-7 after the top of the ninth. St. Pete had a walk-off single to win the game in the bottom of the ninth.

The Saints finished the day 1-1 and won the series against St. Petersburg College including Thursday's win. The Saints are now 29-18 overall and 17-12 in the Citrus Conference. The Saints are one game behind Miami Dade for fourth place and two games ahead of Central Florida in sixth place in a conference race that looks to go down to the wire. The Saints will complete their last Citrus Conference series with Hillsborough as they go to Tampa on Tuesday and the Hawks return to Gainesville for a Saturday doubleheader.   

Up Next at Santa Fe

On Saturday, April 27^th, the Saints will play Hillsborough at 12:00PM and 3:00PM EDT in their last home doubleheader of the year.