The FGCU baseball team (19-8, 1-2 ASUN) exploded to a 20-3 victory over Towson (3-22, 0-3 CAA) Sunday afternoon at Swanson Stadium to complete the three-game sweep over the Tigers.
"Our bullpen was outstanding today," head coach Dave Tollett said. "The offense was great and watching two grand slams in one game was awesome. Hayes and Eusebio were huge for us today. I was also happy to get some of the younger guys in. It's nice when they can have a chance to get a few at-bats and get ready for conference play."
The first few innings of the series finale were back-and-forth between the Tigers and the Eagles. Towson got off to an early start and put a run up in the first inning for the second day in a row after Richard Miller cranked out an RBI single. Junnior Marc Coffers scored on a throwing error by the catcher in the bottom of the first, tying things up at 1-1. Junior Kohl Gilmore awarded the Eagles the lead when he brought in junior Alex Brait on a sac fly.
The Tigers used a two-spot in the second to take a 3-2 lead over the Green and Blue, but it was the team's final advantage of the series. Coffers tripled down the left field line to plate senior Eric Gonzalez in the bottom of the second and later came around to score on an RBI single by Brait.
Sophomore Tyler Shuck (5-0) made his second start of the season for the Eagles. Shuck made it through three frames, recorded one strikeout and walked three. After giving up three hits and the Tigers' three runs, he was relieved by senior Justin Gill.
Gill threw the next three innings and, through 11 batters, he struck out four, gave up one hit and walked none. Sophomore Nikolas Bitner and junior Keegan Collett each pitched one inning of relief for FGCU. Bitner struck out the side in his frame of work and Collett struck out one and relied on the Eagles' defense for the other two outs.
The Eagles' offense dominated the game and put up 15 runs spread across innings four, six and seven. The effort was highlighted by two grand slams off the bats of senior Jay Hayes and junior Elijah Eusebio. Prior to today's game, the Eagles had hit two grand slams all season: Eusebio cranked one out on March 24 at UNF and freshman Joe Kinker notched one against Quinnipiac on March 9. The two grand slams are a new record for the most in a single game in FGCU baseball history in the DI era (since 2008).
Gilmore, junior Richie Garcia, sophomore Christian Proffitt and Coffers all recorded RBIs for the Green and Blue during the scoring splurge.
Freshman Chris Seymour made his third appearance for FGCU on the hill and was tasked with getting the final three outs of the game. He struck out the first batter, got the second to fly out and ended the game when classmate Hunter Fornari made a diving catch at third base.
This afternoon's win marked the second time this season that the Eagles have swept an opponent in a three-game series. The first was over LIU Brooklyn Feb. 22-24 at Swanson Stadium. The 20 runs are the second-most put up by FGCU's offense so far, behind the 23-3 effort against Bethune-Cookman on Feb. 16.
Up Next:
FGCU will take on Lipscomb (13-12, 2-3 ASUN) in an ASUN Conference matchup next weekend at Swanson Stadium. It will be the Eagles' first conference series that they have hosted so far this season. The Green and Blue currently hold a 22-18 advantage in the series, including a 12-6 mark at Swanson. Last year, the Eagles dropped two of three at Lipscomb's Dugan Field. Prior to that series, they had won seven games straight.
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