St. Thomas University’s head baseball coach Jorge Perez earned his 300th career victory last month, when the Bobcats swept a doubleheader at host University of South Carolina Beaufort.
The Bobcats won the first game of the doubleheader 9-7, then blew out USCB 16-2 in the second game in a contest that was called after seven innings.
With the wins, the Bobcats won the three-game series over the Sand Sharks and improved the career record for Perez to 301-203 in his nine seasons at STU.
In the game, STU ran out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first before USCB came back to tie the score 2-2. The Bobcats exploded with a five-run fifth inning adding runs in the sixth and seventh to take a 9-4 lead into the eighth.
In the bottom of the eighth, the Sand Sharks rallied with three runs to cut the lead to two. With two outs in the bottom of the eighth and runners on first and third, Brandon Valentin was called to action and delivered with a strikeout to end the USCB comeback. Valentin would go on to pitch a scoreless ninth inning to earn the save.
Kenny Roder started the game and earned the victory to improve to 5-1. Roder struck out eight with no walks and allowed four runs, three earned, on eight hits.
The second game of the doubleheader featured offensive fireworks for the Bobcats to go along with an excellent outing by starting pitcher Chris Rodriguez.
The Bobcats started the scoring in the second inning with an RBI single by German Morales that scored Daniel Lowry. STU then put up four runs in the third highlighted by a 2-RBI triple by Michael Centeno.
In Centeno's next at bat, the senior crushed a 2-run home run, his team-leading 10th of the season, as part of a five-run fourth inning that put the game out of reach early.