Glendale, Ariz. - The Firestorm offense was all gas, no breaks against the Park Gilbert Buccaneers on Tuesday night, amassing a season-high 18 runs in an 18-2 victory at Greenway High School. Eleven of 12 ACU players who made a plate appearance reached safely, contributing to tying a season high in total hits (18). 

Jared Anderson unleashed the long-ball in this one, hitting his first home run of the season in the first inning and leading the club with four RBIs. Trey Tarver and Kane Kiaunis each rapped a pair of extra-base hits and batted in two runs apiece. Jaylen Edmonds went 2-of-5 to bring his hitting streak up to eight games and Marques Titialii uncorked his sixth home run of 2024 and 29th of his ACU career.

In his fifth start of the season, Adrian Santa Cruz earned his third win on the mound for the Firestorm, pitching a shutout through five innings and tossing a season-high eight strikeouts. Of the four relievers, Jackson Van Eyk made his second appearance in an Arizona Christian uniform and punched out three Park Gilbert batters in the seventh.

ACU improves to 9-2 in their all-time series against Park Gilbert and extends its winning streak to five.

GAME INFO

Score: RV Arizona Christian 18 | Park Gilbert 2
Records: RV ACU 9-8 (3-3 GSAC) | PUG 9-8 (3-0 Cal Pac)
Location: Greenway High School - Glendale, AZ

STAT TRACKER

Trey Tarver - 3 hits, 2 RBIs, 2 extra-base hits
Sean Garcia - 3 hits, 1 double 
Jared Anderson - 2 hits, 4 RBIs, 1 home run
Kane Kiaunis - 2 hits, 2 RBIs, 2 doubles
Jaylen Edmonds - 2 hits, 1 RBI
Marques Titialii - 1 hit, 1 RBI, 1 home run
Troy Collins - 1 hit, 2 RBIs, 1 double
Adrian Santa Cruz - 5.0 IP, 0 RA, 8 SOs

INSIDE THE BOXSCORE

The Buccaneers followed an opening ground out with three consecutive singles that juiced up the base pads. However, Santa Cruz responded to early adversity well and struck out the next two batters to escape the first inning with no damage on the scoreboard.

Tarver tripled, his at-bat sandwiched between two swinging strikeouts. Back-to-back doubles from Kiaunis and Collins sent in the first to Firestorm runs of the ball game. Anderson's connection to the ball in the proceeding at-bat was pure, and he homered to left field and dealt two more runs to the ACU scoring effort.

Park Gilbert would add a fourth hit to their total in the second but receive nothing for it.The Firestorm continued to pressure the visiting Buccaneers in the second with three hits, and two errors helped six runners touch home base. Kiaunis notched his second double of the night and sent Tarver home.
 
Santa Cruz forced three consecutive ground outs in the third and stood aside as the floodgates were still wide open for the ACU offense. Two walks and an Edmond's single loaded the bases right away in the third, and an error-accompanied double from Tarver scored three runs with no outs recorded. With two outs, Anderson registered two more RBIs with a double, Deshon Thomas singled to bring in a run and eventually an Edmond's walk would tally the seventh Firestorm run of the inning. 

For the second straight inning, Park Gilbert would go hitless, as Santa Cruz struck out two more. Titialii sent a solo shot over the left-center fence in the fourth frame, giving the Firestorm their 18th and final run of the contest.

The next three innings saw no run by either squad, Park Gilbert and Arizona Christian combining for seven hits and 11 left on base. 

Anthony Marcon batted in the Buccaneers' first run with a single up the middle and eventually would score their second run on the bases after a throwing error by ACU's catcher Dylan Petersen and a groundout by Tommy Pinnow.

Ryan Eastham recorded ACU's final hit of the game, after striking out in his first plate appearance in the sixth.

THOUGHTS FROM COACH JOE MCDONALD

"We did a good job setting the tone for the week tonight and taking care of business," Coach McDonald said. 

NEXT FOR THE FIRESTORM

The Arizona Christian Firestorm prepare for their sixth top-25 opponent this season, as a three-game series with #17 Vanguard begins this Friday night. First pitch from Greenway High School is set for 7:00 PM. Catch all the action with live stats at https://acufirestorm.com/sidearmstats/baseball/summary and watch the broadcast at https://www.gsacsportsnetwork.com/azchristian/.  
    
                          
Roll Storm!