WAXAHACHIE, Texas — Southwestern Christian University baseball opened its weekend series strong but dropped the final two games against Nelson University in a three-game set played March 13–14 in Texas.
The Eagles earned a convincing victory in the opener before Nelson rallied to take both games of Saturday's doubleheader.
SCU 7, Nelson 3 (Game 1)
Southwestern Christian jumped on Nelson early and never looked back in Friday's opener, cruising to a 7–3 victory behind a big third inning and a strong start from Anderson Paredes.
The Eagles broke the game open in the top of the third with five runs. Nate Anderson singled to start the rally before Eliam Dudamel and Royce Florenzano reached to load the bases. Dario Paredes delivered the biggest swing of the inning, launching a grand slam to give SCU a 4–0 lead.
Later in the frame, Elvis Rojas added an RBI single to stretch the advantage to 5–0.
A. Paredes earned the win on the mound, pitching seven innings while allowing three runs on four hits and striking out five. Jacob Hogan closed the game with two scoreless innings and three strikeouts.
At the plate, Rojas led SCU with three hits and two runs scored, while Anderson added two hits and two RBIs.
Nelson 5, SCU 3 (Game 2)
The Eagles carried a 3–1 lead into the final inning of Saturday's first game before Nelson mounted a late comeback to steal a 5–3 win.
SCU built its lead with timely hitting throughout the game. Elvis Rojas drove in the first run with an RBI single in the second inning, and Nate Anderson added an RBI single in the fifth. The Eagles extended their advantage to 3–1 in the sixth when Dominic Ornelas scored on a wild pitch.
Nelson's offense erupted in the bottom of the seventh, however. After two runners reached base, Drew Ortiz delivered the decisive blow with a three-run home run that gave Nelson the lead for good.
Frangely Morel pitched well for SCU, throwing 6.2 innings with eight strikeouts before taking the loss.
Nelson 8, SCU 7 (Game 3)
The final game of the series turned into a back-and-forth battle, but Nelson held off a late Eagles rally to secure an 8–7 win.
SCU jumped out quickly with three runs in the first inning. Nate Anderson led off with a double, and Dario Paredes followed later with a two-run double to give the Eagles an early advantage.
Nelson responded with a huge second inning, scoring five runs and eventually building an 8–3 lead after three innings.
The Eagles refused to go away. Royce Florenzano blasted a two-run home run in the fourth to cut the deficit, and Bryan Melo tripled home another run in the sixth to make it 8–7.
SCU had the tying run on base in the seventh but was unable to push across the equalizer as Nelson closed out the one-run victory.
Up Next
With the series loss, Southwestern Christian moved to 15–14 overall on the season. The Eagles will look to bounce back as they continue conference play in their upcoming schedule.
