FGCU Baseball vs Rutgers Game Two Recap

The FGCU baseball team (13-5) continued to prove why it has one of the top offenses in the nation with an 11-3 victory over Rutgers (4-11) Saturday afternoon at Swanson Stadium.

"It started on the hill for us tonight," head coach Dave Tollett said. "Mason gave us another good start and I didn't even think he had his best stuff but he had the pitch. When we came out and immediately put up five (runs in the first inning), it just let everyone relax a little bit and focus on playing good baseball."

"We've had too many games where we have fallen behind in the first inning," head coach Joe Litterio said. "You take away those five runs, it's a 6-3 game and you learn from it and move on. But it's tough when you give up those early runs. This is not all on the pitching staff, it's on the defense as well. We are still looking for the right combination that is going to help us be successful."

Junior Alex Brait and freshman Joe Kinker scored the first two runs of the game for the Green and Blue.

Junior Anthony Gonnella rounded out the inning with his first home run as an Eagle, a three-run shot over the right field wall that brought in senior Jay Hayes and junior Kohl Gilmore, who had both reached on singles.

After claiming its initial lead, FGCU never looked back. Brait led the team offensively, finishing the day 4-of-5 with one run and two RBIs. Gonnella, Hayes, juniors Marc Coffers and junior Richie Garcia and senior Eric Gonzalez combined for nine RBIs, five hits and six runs.

Four hurlers made appearances for the Eagles this afternoon. Junior Mason Studstill (2-0) took the ball first and picked up his second win of the season after striking out 10, walking three and allowing just one run on four hits across 5.2 innings. The effort marks Studstill's third appearance with double-digit strikeouts so far this season. Junior Trey Vickery, who struck out the first batter he faced, pitched the next 1.1 frames and was not charged with any base runners.

Juniors Keegan Collett and Brenden Heiss combined for the final six outs of the game. Collett gave up one hit but was not charged with Rutgers' second run of the night. Heiss let up one run on one hit and ended the game with a strikeout.

Tonight's win marked the fifth-straight weekend that the Eagles have clinched a series so far this season. It is the first time since 2017 that FGCU has won its first five weekend matchups. That year, the Green and Blue started its season with six-straight series wins before falling to Jacksonville in the first weekend of A-SUN play.

UP NEXT
The teams will return to Swanson Stadium at 11 a.m. tomorrow to cap off the series.