WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – The fifth ranked St. Thomas University Bobcats (35-4, 14-1 TSC) defeated nationally ranked Sun Conference opponent #16 Keiser University (25-12, 7-8 TSC) on Tuesday afternoon at Silvester Field 9-7.

St. Thomas broke through with a run in the first inning off the bat of Nelson Mompierre (2-3 3-R HR, 4 RBI), as he brought in Elih Marrero (3-5, 2 RBI) on a RBI single to left to give Mompierre his first of four RBIs on the game.

#16 Keiser responded with a three-run bottom half of the first inning as they hit a three-run home run off starter, Rene Arauz to claim the lead at 3-1.

After two quick outs in the top half of the second inning, St. Thomas got yet another rally started to jump back out of in front 5-3. Following a clutch at-bat by Jack Diaz, the Bobcats were able to load the bases for Marrero, who singled through the right side to plate Diaz and Oscar Rodriguez to knot the game up at 3-3. After the Marrero single, Jackie Urbaez (2-4, 3 RBI) hit a two-run single of his own to give the Bobcats the lead once again.

In the fourth inning the Bobcats padded the lead even more, as Mompierre hit his team leading eighth home run of the season as the STU lead was then pushed to 8-3. The four RBI day with the three-run home run earned Mompierre yet another Golden Rake honor in the win for the fifth ranked Bobcats.

Arauz (5-2) got the start for St. Thomas as he earned his fifth win of the season, pitching three innings, allowing three runs and striking out two. Danger Guevara, Tyler Morales, and Erne Valdes pitched the final six innings for STU.

Valdes was called from the bullpen in the seventh inning with two outs and inherited a situation with runners on first and second in an 8-7 game. Valdes walked the first man he faced in the seventh inning to load the bases, with the game hanging in the balance between the two nationally ranked conference rivals, Valdes bounced back with a strikeout to escape the jam and maintain the momentum in favor of the Bobcats. In the save, five of the seven outs Valdes was asked to get were via the strikeout.

The win extended the St. Thomas winning streak to nine in a row, and moved the head-to-head season match-up against Keiser to 3-2 in favor of St. Thomas

During the game, the NAIA Coaches' Poll was released with the April 3^rd addition which saw the Bobcats move up from seventh to the number five spot, cracking the top five in the Coaches' Poll for the first time this season.

Up next for the fifth ranked St. Thomas University Bobcats is more Sun Conference action against Warner University, with the series starting on Friday, April 6^th from Paul Demie Mainieri Field at 6 p.m.

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