JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The FGCU baseball team struggled to muster much offense on Saturday evening against Jacksonville as the Eagles fell to the Dolphins, 4-1. The Green and Blue fall to 27-16 and 12-8 in the ASUN while JU improves to 21-18 and 8-12 in conference play.
"We couldn't get much going tonight," said head coach
Dave Tollett. "Credit to their pitchers for throwing strikes and getting ahead in counts. Shuck and Love did a nice job of keeping us in the game, but unfortunately, their pitchers were a little better. We'll have to bounce back tomorrow."
The Eagles managed just four hits on the night led by two hits from redshirt-junior
Brian Ellis (Oviedo, Fla./Hagerty HS) who also drove in the only run of the night for the Eagles. Freshman
Harrison Povey (Indian Rocks Beach, Fla./Largo HS) also reached base twice with a pair of walks.
On the mound, reigning ASUN Pitcher of the Week senior
Tyler Shuck (Cape Coral, Fla./Canterbury HS) threw 5.1 innings while allowing four runs and striking out three. Junior
Nick Love (Fernandina Beach, Fla./Yulee/Central College of Florida/Jacksonville) finished the game for the Eagles with 2.2 scoreless innings.
Jacksonville jumped out to an early lead, scoring a run in the first and two in the second. Shuck settled down after that with three straight scoreless innings.
The Eagles got on the board in the fifth with a two-out rally as sophomore
Mac Moise (Cape Coral, Fla./Ida Baker HS) singled before coming around to score on Ellis' 18th double of the season.
FGCU nearly tied the game in the sixth as they had two runners on for graduate student
Logan Sartori (Lincoln, Neb./Lincoln Southwest HS/Texas A&M/Hutchinson CC) who sent a ball to the gap, but Jacksonville's Blake DeLamielleure made a great diving catch in right field to protect JU's lead.
The Dolphins added an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth before Bryce Fisher shut down the Eagles to end the night with three perfect innings to earn the save.
The two teams will meet again tomorrow in the rubber game with first pitch scheduled for 1 p.m.
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COACH TOLLETT
FGCU coach Dave Tollett currently owns a 663-401-3 overall record (.623) and a 221-123 (.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 92 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 44 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.
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