FORT MYERS, Fla. – Behind some great relief pitching and timely hitting, the FGCU baseball team took down Florida Atlantic, 7-2, Tuesday evening at Swanson Stadium. The Eagles take the season series from the Owls and improve to 30-18 on the season while FAU falls to 30-19.
"Just a solid win against a good ball club," said head coach
Dave Tollett. "
Nick Love came in a tough situation and threw probably one of the best innings from our bullpen all year and threw three more shutout innings. Then [Mason] Miller came in at the end and was very good. We are going to need all these guys come tournament time."
The Eagles used three pitchers for the first two innings, getting a scoreless inning each from senior
Gus Carter (Melbourne, Fla./Eau Gallie HS/Florida Southwestern State) and junior
Darien Smith (Jacksonville, Fla./University Christian HS/Eastern Florida State College/Jacksonville). However, the Owls got to
Daniel Batcher in the third for two runs.
Junior
Nick Love (Fernandina Beach, Fla./Yulee/Central College of Florida/Jacksonville) came in to relieve Batcher with runners on first and third and nobody out and proceeded to get two strikeouts and a groundout to escape any further damage. He then went on to throw three more scoreless innings with two more strikeouts for his best performance of the season.
The Eagles had 13 hits on the night led by three off the bat of junior
Alejandro Rodriguez (Cidra, Puerto Rico/Montverde Academy/Eastern Florida State). Junior
Alejandro Figueredo (Sucre, Venezuela/West Oaks HS/Seminole State) knocked in two runs on two hits while junior
Jalen Townsend (Orlando, Fla./Winter Park HS) came off the bench to record a hit, steal two bases, and score two runs.
The Eagles took an early lead in the first as Rodriguez blooped a single to right field to score Figueredo.
After the Owls took the lead with a two-run third inning, the Green and Blue wasted no time to even the score as junior
Joe Kinker (North Port, Fla./Venice HS) knocked an 0-2 pitch to right to score redshirt-junior
Brian Ellis (Oviedo, Fla./Hagerty HS).
In the fifth, FGCU extended its lead with two runs on a double by Figueredo and a sacrifice fly from freshman
Harrison Povey (Indian Rocks Beach, Fla./Largo HS). The Eagles added two more runs in the sixth as graduate student
Bobby Head (Winter Garden, Fla./West Orange HS/Austin Peay) hit his second home run in three games before Figueredo hit an RBI single.
Ellis capped off the scoring for the Eagles with a bases-loaded infield hit in the seventh and in the process reached base for the 59th straight game, just six shy of Zach Maxfield's FGCU record.
After Love's four innings, sophomore
Mason Miller (Odessa, Fla./Mitchell HS) came in to finish the game, throwing three scoreless innings with three strikeouts to earn the save.
The Eagles will now turn their attention to a big weekend at Swanson when the Liberty Flames come to town for three games. First pitch on Friday is set for 6:30 p.m.
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COACH TOLLETT
FGCU coach Dave Tollett currently owns a 666-403-3 overall record (.623) and a 223-125 (.641) 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 45 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.
