FGCU Baseball vs Bethune: Game One Recap

The FGCU baseball team (6-2) opened their first of two road trips of the season in a series against Bethune-Cookman (4-2). The Eagles would end up with a 3-1 loss to open the series. With the loss, the Eagles are now 14-11 overall against the Wildcats.

“It was a classic Division I baseball game,” said head coach Dave Tollett. “This game was two Friday night arms going at each other, we just fell a little short offensively tonight.”

The Eagles sent redshirt senior Mario Leon to start in the opening series against senior Tyler Norris.

The Eagle struck the first run in the series after redshirt sophomore Kohl Gilmore hit an RBI single that drove in Gage Morey.

The Eagles remained ahead until the fifth inning when Leon gave up a two-run homer off the bat of junior Joseph Fernando that gave the Wildcats the lead. In the sixth, the Wildcats added one more run on a sacrifice fly from junior Nate Sterijevski that drove in Jameel Edney, thus signaling the end for Leon and being replaced by junior Justin Gill in the seventh.

The Eagles had opportunities to tie or take the lead, but to no avail.

Leon would be credited with his first loss of the season after throwing six innings, giving up three runs (one unearned) on six hits, walking one batter, and striking out eight.

Gill struck out one batter in his two innings.

Norris would be credited with the win for the Wildcats after throwing six innings, giving up one run on five hits while walking two batters and striking out seven.

Senior Ivan Coutinho was credited with his second save of the season after throwing three scoreless innings while giving up one, walking one batter and striking out five.

The Eagles were held to only six hits. Gilmore was 1-for-3 with the RBI, a walk and two strikeouts. The other Eagles that had a hit in the game were Morey, sophomores Marc Coffers and Jake Smith, and seniors Eli Lovell and Spencer Levine. Morey was the lone Eagle that scored a run off of Gilmore.

Up next, the Eagles return to action against Bethune at 1 P.M. The scheduled pitchers for the games are redshirt junior Josh Dye for FGCU and freshman Jeremy Adams for the Bethune-Cookman.