FGCU Baseball: A-SUN Conference Tournament Preview

Throughout the season, the FGCU baseball team has had ups and downs, but managed to fight through. FGCU (37-17, 13-8 A-SUN) now readies themselves to the next task: the A-SUN Conference Tournament.

The Standings for the tournament are the order of the seeds by overall and conference record:
#1 Jacksonville (33-22, 16-5 A-SUN)
#2 Stetson (27-27, 15-6 A-SUN)
#3 FGCU (37-17, 13-8 A-SUN)
#4 North Florida (33-22, 12-9 A-SUN)
#5 Kennesaw State (23-30, 10-11 A-SUN)
#6 Lipscomb (27-26, 9-12 A-SUN)

USC Upstate (24-31, 7-14 A-SUN) and NJIT (9-40, 2-19 A-SUN) were not eligible to be in the tournament due to their conference records, although it is no surprise to me that NJIT would be out. Since they joined the A-SUN, NJIT's overall record in two seasons is 26-76 overall, and 4-37 in conference.

Season Breakdown:
In the beginning of the season, FGCU started 7-2 in the first nine home games (3-1 Sacred Heart, 1-0 Eastern Michigan, 2-1 Bethune-Cookman and 1-0 FAU). After that, they went on their first road trip sweeping UNC Wilmington in three games before coming back to face then No. 2 UF (now No. 4) at their secondary home field, JetBlue Park, and won 7-3 before heading back to Gainsville and winning 3-2 to complete the sweep.

Since winning two straight games against Bethune-Cookman, they started a 10-game winning streak beating FAU, UNCW and UF before falling 5-4 to Ohio State in the series finale. They would restart their winning streak by beating the No. 1 Florida State 5-2. From there, the Eagles won 10 straight games again after sweeping Rutgers and Jackson State in three games each, then No. 21 USF, and Miami. The 10-game winning streak tied as the second longest winning streak since 2013 and the longest winning streak since 2009.

During conference play, FGCU faced JU to open conference. They would win the first game 4-0 to make it 10 straight wins, but then things were not looking good after the first conference game. In the second game against JU, an altercation between sophomore pitcher Chris Gau and junior Julio Gonzalez occurred. Gau, unassumingly, threw a pitch at Gonzalez when the umpire called timeout causing ruckus between the two benches.

Now from an unbiased view, I don't think Gau meant to throw at Gonzalez because he probably didn't hear the umpire say timeout. Nevertheless, FGCU would lose the second game 10-5 and ended FGCU's winning streak, but the third game was even worse. In the top of the eighth inning of the third game, JU had the bases loaded and redshirt junior Chris Lehane set up a double play after lining out to left and junior Sam Armstrong was tagged out at home by junior catcher Spencer Levine. Words were exchanged between Levine and Armstrong causing both benches to clear and a fight broke out. Five players were ejected from the game (three from FGCU and two from JU). FGCU would lose 5-2 in 11 innings.

They would lose 5 straight games before finally beating Stetson 4-2 in the second game and beat Miami 5-4 two games later. After winning the series at home against Upstate, FGCU would lose another six straight games including being swept by FIU at home and away, swept by UNF at UNF and losing 1-13 to FAU at FAU. This was tied as the longest losing streak they've had since the 2011 season.

Hoping to recover and snap their losing streak, the Eagles went on the road against NJIT. In the first game, I thought if FGCU loses to NJIT, then there is going to be some problems. The first game was a close one, but FGCU managed to win 7-5 in 10 innings. In the second game, the Eagles scored 20 runs, the most since 2014 when they played former A-SUN Conference member Northern Kentucky. During that 20 run game, seven home runs were hit, which was a program-record. The Eagles swept NJIT and Lipscomb before falling to Miami and finishing with a three game sweep to Kennesaw.

FGCU is listed as the #3 seed in the conference and will play #4 UNF to begin the tournament.

Leading the charge offensively for FGCU is redshirt senior first baseman Nick Rivera. Rivera is batting .308 and currently leads the team in home runs (16), RBIs (54), runs scored (46), walks (51) and total bases (118). During the season and throughout his career, Rivera has set six records for FGCU, the A-SUN and the NCAA: career games played (241, nation's best), career games started (236), career RBIs (214), career doubles (71), career total bases (478), and career home runs (42, A-SUN best 16 home runs). Rivera also leads the nation in career walks (171).

Also joining the offensive fray is junior Julio Gonzalez as well as classmates Eli Lovell and Matt Reardon, redshirt junior Gage Morey and freshman Richie Garcia.

Gonzalez, a transfer from NJCAA Seminole State College (OK), is batting a team-leading .342 batting average with five home runs, 36 RBIs and leads the team with 76 hits.

Lovell, a transfer from NJCAA Kansas City Kansas Community College (KCKCC), is batting .291 with six home runs and 37 RBIs. Lovell also leads the team in doubles (15).

Reardon is batting .280 with one home run and 31 RBIs, but is a potential threat in base-running with nine stolen bases.

Morey is batting .295 with two home runs and 23 RBIs. Morey leads the team in stolen bases (11).

Garcia is batting .277 and is tied with Lovell with six home runs and has 32 RBIs.

Pitching wise, junior Kutter Crawford, redshirt sophomore Josh Dye, redshirt junior Kenton Hering and seniors Garrett Anderson and Sterling Koerner lead the fray for FGCU.

Crawford, a transfer from NJCAA Indian River State College, is currently 6-1 with a 1.71 ERA. Crawford currently leads the team with 81 strikeouts. Crawford's most recent start was against Kennesaw where threw five innings while giving up one run on two hits, walking two and striking out four batters.

Dye is 8-3 with a 3.32 ERA and has gone back and forth between being a starter and reliever. Dye's most recent start ended in a no decision in a win against Kennesaw where he threw 4.2 innings and giving up five runs on five hits while walking one and striking out six batters.

Herring is mainly used as the set-up man from the bullpen. He is currently 6-3 with a 2.32 ERA. In 50.1 innings, Hering has given up 19 runs on 48 hits while walking 16 and striking out 62 batters. He is also credited with four saves in the season.

Anderson is 6-1 with a 3.72 ERA and in 67.2 innings, he has given up 31 runs on 76 hits while walking 19 and striking out 55.

Koerner is mainly the closer for the Eagles. In the series against JU, he struggled severely, but returned as the closer afterwards. Despite going 2-3 on the season, he leads the team with 12 saves.

Scouting UNF:
Players to keep an eye on are junior Yahir Gurrola, senior Chris Thibideau, and sophomores Austin Drury and Frank German.

Gurrola is batting .322 and leads the team with nine home runs and 50 RBIs. Gurrola also is credited with 10 stolen bases.

Thibideau is batting .325 with seven home runs and 35 RBIs. Thibideau leads the team with 14 stolen bases.

On the mound, the duo of Drury and German combine a 14-3 record (German is 8-1 and Drury is 6-2). German leads the team with 71 strikeouts while Drury has 61 strikeouts.

Award Winners:
Before the tournament begins, the A-SUN released the award winners and members of the conference teams. FGCU landed nine awards and seven of the players earned conference team honors:

Crawford, Gonzalez and Rivera tabbed A-SUN First Team All-Conference honors.

Garcia was named A-SUN Freshman of the Year, and along with his fellow freshman teammates, Alex Brait and Marc Coffers, was named on the A-SUN All-Freshman Team.

Rivera was named A-SUN Player of the Year to go with his A-SUN All-Conference First Team honors.

Senior Corey Fehribach was the lone player to be named on the A-SUN All-Academic Team.

The tournament will start at 11 am with #1 JU playing #6 Lipscomb. #3 FGCU will play #4 UNF at 3 pm and #2 Stetson will play #5 Kennesaw at 7 pm.

The tournament will take place and hosted by defending champions Stetson at Conrad Park in Deland, Florida.

Already noted, six teams have already punched their tickets and won an automatic bid to the national tournament and are going to certain regionals:
Long Beach State (Big West Conference)
Yale (Ivy League)
Bethune-Cookman (MEAC)
Oregon State (Pac 12)
Holy Cross (Patriot)
Texas Southern (SAC).

The question is this: Will Stetson defend their championship or will a new team represent the A-SUN? The question will be answered in the next two to three days.