After going 3-0 in the NAIA Ball East West Challenge in Arizona, with two wins against ranked teams, the Warriors got burned by the preseason #1-ranked Fire. The Warriors were never in this. They fell behind 6-0 after three innings, and didn’t get on the board until Pu’ukani De Sa hit an RBI single in the fifth inning. The Fire put it away with four runs in the bottom of the sixth. The Warriors didn’t score again until they got two in the top of the ninth on a two-run home run by Dominic Signorelli.
Amazingly, the Warriors out-hit the Fire 6-5, and only two of the Fire’s runs were unearned. The difference was, Warrior pitchers walked eleven batters, and five of them scored. Also noteworthy is that Charlie Updegrave and Nick Seamons, who hit the cover off the ball in the first three games, were held hitless. Updegrave was walked twice, and hit by a pitch.
Fire started Lex Garcia got the win. Warrior starter Dallas McGill got the loss. De Sa and Brandon Cabrera each had two hits. recap