FGCU Club Baseball Sweeps First Series
The FGCU Club Baseball team played their first series of the year this past weekend against out of conference opponent, University of Tampa. The team won 3 out of 3 games to start the season off undefeated.
In game 1, Kody Horton starts the year off by throwing 5 shutout innings, striking out 4 batters and allowing 4 hits. The Eagles bats were also off to a strong start with the team having 10 hits total. While the whole lineup had an impact to win the game, our most notable players were Matt Riley going 3 for 3 with 2 stolen bases in his debut. Dylan Odud also had a multi-hit game and Nate Horten got his first double in his debut game as well. The Eagles won 4-3 in their first game in 7 innings.
In game 2, Jakob Kustin started on the mound for the Eagles and threw 4 innings giving up 2 hits and striking out 5. The Eagles' bats were on another level in the second game, scoring 11 runs on 11 hits. Matt Riley stayed hot this series going 3 for 4 with a double and a triple along with Mike Demio tallying his first homer of the year. Demio also brough in 3 runners while scoring 3 times himself that game. Jayden Cannizzaro and Juan Martinez also made the most out of their debut. Cannizzaro hit his first triple and Martinez went 2 for 3 with a double. The bullpen then came in a little shaky, but reliever Zach Wilson threw 1 inning, struck out 2 and gave up no hits. The Eagles took the lead early and never let it go, winning 11-5.
In game 3, Jack Peterson had a rough start to the season walking 6 batters and giving up 5 runs in the first. Thankfully, the Eagles' bats remained hot and scored 3 right back and then tied it in the second making it 5-5. Peterson finished 3 innings only giving up those 5 runs in the first. Derek Mesa then came out of the bullpen where the pitching struggles would continue. Mesa gave up 4 runs, 3 earned, through 1 inning. The Eagles also had some problems defensively this game with 5 total errors, but all problems with the bullpen came to an end. Reliever Nick Perdue came in after Mesa and was lights out. He threw 5 innings giving up 1 hit and allowing 1 run, unearned. During Perdue's outing, the Eagles rallied to take the lead back in the 8th tallying 18 hits total throughout the game. The Eagles showed perseverance and won 11-10 resulting in a series sweep versus UT.
The Eagles look to work on pitch command and keep the bats hot against their first conference game against UF.