Box Score
NORFOLK, Va. – Anselmo Cantu (Virginia Beach, Va.) continued his torrid hitting with a 4-for-4 day, and Jason Barker (Chesapeake, Va.) picked up his first win of the year with 8.2 strong innings as NSU defeated Marist 6-3 on Sunday afternoon at Marty L. Miller Field.
Cantu doubled three times and finished the weekend 8-for-12. Barker (1-2) pitched eight scoreless innings before running into some trouble in the ninth, but the Spartans (3-4) held on to snap a four-game losing streak.
NSU got off to an early advantage. John Lynch (Newport News, Va.) led off with a single and stole second base. Cantu followed with a sharp double down the right-field line to give NSU a 1-0 lead.
In the third, Cantu, Chris Joyce (Chesapeake, Va.) and Brandon Hairston (North Garden, Va.) hit consecutive two-out singles, with Hairston's hit driving in Cantu for a 2-0 lead. Cantu kept it up in the fifth, doubling up the right-field gap. After a wild pitch by B.J. Martin (1-1), Cantu scored on Joyce's groundout to make it 3-0.
NSU added insurance with two runs in the sixth and one more in the seventh. In the sixth, Chris Warren (Virginia Beach, Va.) stroked his fourth double of the weekend to score Juan Herrera (Santiago, Dominican Republic) and Jerrod Farley (Chester, Va.) added an RBI single to make it 5-0. In the seventh, Cantu doubled to left-center and later scored on a wild pitch by Peter Barone.
Barker was on cruise control for most of the game. He retired 10 straight batters at one point from the second to the fifth inning. He allowed just four hits through eight, but ran into a rough spot in the ninth. Andrew Stanton (3-for-4) broke up the shutout with an RBI single to score John Prano, who led off with a double. George Agostini added a two-run single to chase Barker one out shy of a complete game.
With the tying run at the plate, Horace Smith III (Emporia, Va.) came on to retire Michael Gallic on a popout to end the game. It was Smith's first career save.
Barker struck out a career-high seven batters. He allowed seven hits and three runs, walking four.
Farley was the only other Spartan with more than one hit. He was 2-for-4. Cantu scored three times and is now batting .654 (17-for-26) this season.
NSU returns to action on Tuesday when it hosts VMI at 2 p.m.
