FORT MYERS, Fla. – After a tough loss last night, the FGCU baseball team bounced back on Saturday with a 10-5 victory over Jacksonville at Swanson Stadium. The Eagles improve to 17-6 on the season and 4-1 in the ASUN while the Dolphins fall to 12-9 and 1-4 in conference.
"It was a good comeback for us," said head coach
Dave Tollett. "After last night I didn't think we played very well so today was a good bounce-back game to even the series. Jacksonville's a really good baseball team so we're going to have to be ready to go tomorrow."
The top four hitters in the lineup of redshirt-junior
Brian Ellis (Oviedo, Fla./Hagerty HS), sophomore
Ian Farrow (Merritt Island, Fla./Merritt Island HS), junior
Joe Kinker (North Port, Fla./Venice HS), and junior
Alejandro Figueredo (Sucre, Venezuela/West Oaks HS/Seminole State) got on base a combined 11 times and came around to score on eight occasions.
While the top four got on base, it was the next three who drove them in as freshman
Harrison Povey (Indian Rocks Beach, Fla./Largo HS), junior
Luis Rodriguez (Guarenas, Venezuela/Miami Christian HS/Santa Fe College/Dyersburg State), and junior
Alejandro Rodriguez (Cidra, Puerto Rico/Montverde Academy/Eastern Florida State) each had two RBI in the game.
On the mound, senior
Tyler Shuck (Cape Coral, Fla./Canterbury HS) threw six innings while allowing three earned runs and striking out five. Senior
Joey Mugavero (Estero, Fla./Estero HS/Florida Southwestern State) earned the save by pitching the final three innings where he struck out three and allowed just one unearned run.
After Jacksonville took an early 3-0 lead in the first, the Eagles got one run back in the bottom half as Ellis walked before advancing on a passed ball and coming around to score on a single by Farrow.
FGCU's big inning came in the third as they scored five runs. Figueredo drove in the first run of the inning with a single before
Luis Rodriguez got plunked with the bases loaded to tie the game.
Alejandro Rodriguez followed with a two-run double to give the Eagles the lead before junior
Stephen Wilmer (Sarasota, Fla./Riverview HS/Pasco-Hernando State/ECU) drove in a run with a double of his own.
The Dolphins answered with one run in the fourth, but the Eagles came right back in the fourth with three runs with the big hit being a two-run double down the first-base line off the bat of Povey.
Luis Rodriguez added another run on a fielder's choice.
In the sixth, Kinker put the cherry on top with a solo home run that stayed just fair down the left-field line, his sixth homer of the season and 28th of his career as he now sits in fourth place in program history.
The Eagles will look to take the series in the rubber game tomorrow afternoon. First pitch from Swanson Stadium is set for 1 p.m.
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COACH TOLLETT
FGCU coach Dave Tollett currently owns a 653-391-3 overall record (.623) and a 215-116 (.647) record in the ASUN. He is the only head coach in the program's history and led the program to its first trip to the NCAA Tournament in 2017. He is a five-time ASUN Coach of the Year and has guided the Green and Blue to five ASUN Regular Season Championships and one ASUN Tournament Championship. His team has been ranked nationally on several occasions, including as high as No. 9 in the country in 2017, and has coached 58 all-conference selections, 33 draft picks, three current major leaguers, 13 current minor leaguers, four ASUN Pitchers of the Year, four All-Americans, three ASUN Players of the Year, one National Freshman Player of the Year, one National Player of the Year and one seven-time MLB All-Star.
E.A.G.L.E. CAMPAIGN
IT TAKES A TEAM to achieve our newest goal - a $10 million campaign to address student-athlete needs in continued academic success, life skills, mental health, nutrition, and strength and conditioning as well as departmental needs in facility expansion and improvement as well as mentoring and leadership training for coaches and staff. The name embodies our mission and the purpose of the E.A.G.L.E. Campaign - Eagle Athletics Generating Lifetime Excellence. Join Our Team and pledge your gift today to help the Eagles of tomorrow!
#FEEDFGCU
FGCU Athletics sponsors events in November and April to benefit the FGCU Campus Food Pantry (www.fgcu.edu/foodpantry) and the Harry Chapin Food Bank (www.harrychapinfoodbank.org), FGCU Athletics' charities of choice. For more information, including how to make a contribution, please visit www.fgcu.edu/foodpantry and utilize the hashtag #FeedFGCU to help raise awareness.
ABOUT FGCU
FGCU teams have combined to win an incredible 89 conference regular season and tournament titles in just 14+ seasons at the Division I level. Additionally, in just 10 seasons of D-I postseason eligibility, the Eagles have had a combined 43 teams or individuals compete in NCAA championships. Eight FGCU programs have earned a top-25 national ranking in their respective sport - including women's basketball (No. 20, 2021-22), beach volleyball (No. 20, 2022) and both men's soccer (2018, 2019) and women's soccer (2018) as three of the most recent. In 2016-17, the Green and Blue posted a department-best sixth-place finish in the DI-AAA Learfield Directors' Cup and top-100 showing nationally, ahead of several Power-5 and FBS institutions. In 2018-19, the Eagles had an ASUN and state of Florida best seven teams earn the NCAA's Public Recognition Award for their Academic Progress Rate in their sport. FGCU also collectively earned a record 3.50 GPA in the classroom in the fall 2020 semester and has outperformed the general University undergraduate population for 25 consecutive semesters. The past five semesters (Fall 2019 – Fall 2021) each saw another milestone reached as all 15 programs achieved a 3.0-or-higher team GPA in each. The Eagles also served an all-time high 7,200 volunteer hours in 2017 - being recognized as one of two runners-up for the inaugural NACDA Community Service Award presented by the Fiesta Bowl.
