Losing two of three to Stetson, FGCU slides to 5th seed in tournament
Special toThe Breeze
Winning only the final game of a three-game series at Stetson over the weekend cost FGCU the No. 2 seeding for this week’s Atlantic Sun Conference championship tournament which the Eagles are serving as host.
With the two losses the Eagles (28-24-1, 11-9 A-Sun) plummeted all the way to the No. 5 seeding for the first round of the double-elimination tournament. They face their replacement at No. 2, Lipscomb (35-18, 13-8 A-Sun), at 7 p.m. Wednesday. In a bit of irony, it was Lipscomb that eliminated the Eagles from the tournament last year.
Two earlier games match up No. 6 Kennesaw State against No. 1 North Florida at 11 a.m. followed by No. 4 Jacksonville against No. 3 Stetson at 3 p.m.
Play continues with three games each on Thursday and Friday at 11 a.m., 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. The championship game is scheduled at 1 p.m. Saturday.
FGCU topped Stetson 4-3 in the season finale on Saturday.
“It was great to get this win today,” Eagles coach Dave Tollett said. “(Devin) Smeltzer pitched probably as well as he has all season and for Sterling (Koerner) to come in and do what he did over the last five innings to lock this one down was huge. Hopefully, this gives us some momentum heading back home for the tournament. Any team in this thing could win it so we’re looking forward to taking a shot at it at our place.”
Smeltzer tossed four innings of five-hit ball, allowing two runs and striking out two. The freshman threw 67 pitches and faced 17 batters without factoring in the decision. Koerner came on in relief and dominated as he has all season. He rolled through his five innings while allowing just one run and striking out two. The sophomore closes the regular season with a 3.00 ERA and six wins, the most of any Eagle, and 46 strikeouts.
Cape Coral’s Nick Rivera (Bishop Verot) went 1-for-2 at the plate Saturday and drove in three more runs to bring his season total to 67. It secures Rivera the regular season RBI title among A-Sun hitters. He is just seven RBI short of the FGCU single-season record of 74 set by Jason Louwsma in 2006. For the weekend Rivera hit for a .400 average with a double, a triple and eight runs batted in.
Rivera, a junior, was rewarded Tuesday by being selected first team All-Conference with five teammates also recognized by the league.
Brady Anderson, Jake Noll and Tyler Selesky were named to the All-Conference second team while freshmen Matt Reardon and Zach Spivey made the all-freshman team.
“These six individuals absolutely deserve this recognition and worked very hard for it,” said Tollett. “This team had a very up-and-down year, but through it all these guys were the core that kept us together.”