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DeLAND, Fla. – Less than a month ago, redshirt sophomore infielder Trevor Kole (Parkland, Fla./Cardinal Gibbons HS) barely saw the field for the FGCU baseball team.

Saturday in the 2023 ASUN Championship semifinals, however, Kole continued to etch his name into Green & Blue history by bashing the Eagles one step away from a second-ever title.
 
Kole belted a three-run homer in the seventh inning – his fourth this week – to lift second-seeded FGCU (42-17) past pesky No. 7 seed Jacksonville State 14-10 and into Sunday's championship game at Melching Field at Conrad Park.
 
"That is not a pillow fight right there, that's for sure," said FGCU head baseball coach Dave Tollett. "Give a lot of credit to Jacksonville State for battling back and getting into it. Our 7-8-9 guys had seven hits and eight RBIs, which is a good sign for us."
 
FGCU will play Lipscomb (35-24), which beat Liberty 7-3 in Saturday's second semifinal, in the title game at 1 p.m. Sunday. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+.
 
The Green & Blue is now just one victory away from equaling the 43-win mark set by the 2017 Chapel Hill Regional squad – the only other team in FGCU history to win an ASUN Championship tournament – as the most in program history. After a run through Pool B of the tournament and into the semifinals, Jacksonville State ends its season at 27-30.
 
Kole's eighth-inning rocket to left was FGCU's fourth of the game, giving the Eagles a nation-best 139 through 59 games – 19 ahead of 22^nd-ranked Maryland in second place. That total shatters the previous school record of 94 set just last season. FGCU's 572 runs also lead the nation, as does its' .593 slugging percentage.
 
Kole became FGCU's every-day third baseman only when sophomore shortstop Jake Mummau (Palm Harbor, Fla./Palm Harbor University HS/St. Petersburg College) broke a finger on his throwing hand April 30. That forced Tollett to move junior Jacob Lojewski (West Palm Beach, Fla./Delray American Heritage HS) from third to short and insert Kole at the hot corner.
 
"I'll always believe in Trevor. He is one of those kids who has been in this program and has gotten better every day, taking extra ground balls every day whether he is in the lineup or not," Tollett said. "He deserves every bit of this. Every bit. I just hope we win (Sunday) so we can give him the MVP of this thing, because he deserves it."
 
FGCU needed every bit of its vaunted firepower Saturday to overcome a Gamecocks squad. Graduate infielder Alejandro Figueredo (Sucre, Venezuela/West Oaks HS/Seminole State) hit his third homer in the last two games to celebrate his 24^th birthday, and both sophomore outfielder Harrison Povey (Indian Rocks Beach, Fla./Largo HS) and senior outfielder Stephen Wilmer (Sarasota, Fla./Riverview HS/Pasco-Hernando State/ECU) went deep as part of a 13-hit attack.
 
The Eagles tried to put the game out of reach early, scoring five runs in the second inning and three more in the third. The second inning featured an RBI single by Wilmer and a sacrifice fly off the bat of sophomore infielder Edrick Felix (Orlando, Fla./Victory Charter HS/College of Central Florida) before Figueredo turned on a slider from JSU's AJ Causey for a three-run homer.
 
Povey belted a solo shot off the scoreboard in right-center to open the third inning, and both Kole and Felix provided RBI singles for what seemed like a solid 8-0 lead.
 
That cushion lasted less than a half-inning, as Jacksonville State's T.J. Reeves crashed a grand slam to highlight an eight-run Gamecocks fourth inning to tie it right back up.
 
Wilmer made it 9-8 with a solo homer to right-center in the bottom of the fourth, but Jacksonville State took a 10-9 lead in the sixth via an FGCU wild pitch and a Derrick Jackson RBI single.
 
Cue Kole, who had homered in each of FGCU's three Pool A victories so far in DeLand. He turned on a 1-0 hanging slider from Trey Fortner and deposited it over the left-field wall to set the Eagles dugout into a celebratory tizzy and make it 12-10.
 
"It has been one heck of a ride this last month," Kole said. "I just love this team so much, and was in the dugout ready to support. One guy goes down, the next thing you know I am playing and trying to do whatever I can to help.
 
"I was looking to drive something, looking for a slider, and he left it up there for me. I blacked out after that, honestly, and don't even remember rounding the bases."
 
FGCU wasn't done with the power display yet, as Lojewski ripped a two-run double down the left-field line in the eighth for the final margin.
 
That was enough for senior pitcher LJ McDonough (Blanchard, Okla./Blanchard HS/Wichita State), who earned the victory in a starting role Tuesday against Jacksonville and delivered 3 1/3 innings of shutout work in relief Saturday to win again and improve to 7-2. Fortner absorbed the loss.
 
The victory marked FGCU's third this season against the Gamecocks, all of which saw the Eagles scored at least 12 runs.
 
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COACH TOLLETT
FGCU coach Dave Tollett currently owns a 713-425-3 overall record (.626) and a 248-140 (.639) 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 63 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, two National Freshman All-Americans, 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 (https://www.fgcu.edu/adminservices/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 https://www.fgcu.edu/adminservices/foodpantry and utilize the hashtag #FeedFGCU to help raise awareness.
 
ABOUT FGCU
FGCU teams have combined to win an incredible 98 conference regular season and tournament titles in just 15-plus seasons at the Division I level. Additionally, in just 11-plus seasons of D-I postseason eligibility, the Eagles have had a combined 49 teams or individuals compete in NCAA championships. In 2022, the men's golf team became the first program to earn an at-large berth to the NCAA Tournament. Nine FGCU programs have earned a top-25 national ranking in their respective sport – including women's basketball (No. 20 in 2021-22 and No. 22 in 2022-23), baseball (No. 15 in 2023), beach volleyball (No. 20 in 2022), and both men's soccer (2018, 2019) and women's soccer (2018) as five of the most recent. In 2016-17, the Green & 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 3.57 GPA in the classroom in the fall 2022 semester and has outperformed the general University undergraduate population for 27 consecutive semesters. The past seven semesters (Fall 2019-Fall 2022) saw another milestone reached as all 15 programs achieved a 3.0-or-higher cumulative team GPA. 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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