FGCU baseball team pounds Lipscomb
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – FGCU jumped out to an early lead and never looked back as they punched their ticket to the Atlantic Sun Baseball Tournament with a 19-4 win over Lipscomb Saturday afternoon.
The 19 runs are a new season-high after the Eagles scored 18 in a loss at USC Upstate last weekend and are the most runs since defeating NKU 22-13 in 2014.
Additionally, the 15-run margin of victory is the highest since defeating Le Moyne 19-2 in 2011.
With a number of teams battling for conference seedings as the season nears its end, the Eagles (24-26, 9-9 A-Sun) claimed a 7-4 win in the three-game series finale at Lipscomb (26-25, 9-9 A-Sun) Sunday afternoon, taking two of the three games.
FGCU claimed its first series in Nashville since 2010. Additionally, with Stetson’s loss at Kennesaw State, the Eagles move into a tie for fourth in the conference standings and hold the tiebreaker over both the Hatters and Bisons.
The Eagles travel to Coral Gables for the second time this season to cap off their three-game series with No. 3-ranked Miami (40-9, 19-6 ACC) at 7 p.m. Tuesday. The game is FGCU’s seventh against a top-five opponent this season. Miami won the two previous games this season.
FGCU starter Kenton Hering (2-1, 5.84) earned Sunday’s win. Hering tossed a season-high five innings and struck out a season-high seven batters while allowing two runs on four hits with one walk.
“It’s a jam-packed conference race, and we helped ourselves out with a couple of tough road wins this weekend,” said Eagles coach Dave Tollett. “I was proud of the way the guys responded from a dramatic loss in game one. We came into the weekend with a by-committee concept in mind for our pitchers in these last two games, but Kenton followed Mario’s performance with another good outing and we were able to preserve some arms.”
After leaving the bases loaded in the top of the first, FGCU took a 2-0 lead in its next at-bat when Jake Smith hit a two-out double that dropped down the left-field line and scored a pair.
Mario Leon (4-4, 4.87) earned Saturday’s win. Leon tossed six scoreless innings while matching a career high set earlier this season with seven strikeouts. He allowed four hits and issued four walks.