The FGCU baseball team (18-8, 1-2 A-SUN) handed Towson (3-21, 0-3 CAA) a 5-2 loss at Swanson Stadium Saturday afternoon. With today's win, the Eagles have now clinched their sixth non-conference series of the season.
"We had a good start from Lumbert. Once he settled in, he got in a groove and it was really good," head coach Dave Tollett said. "McGarry came in and gave us a chance to win, which is just what he does. I thought Brait and Kohl were huge for us. They had some big-time RBIs. Brait's last RBI was a big hit because it gave us a three-run lead which we always talk about trying to get to. Hopefully, the bottom of the lineup will do a little more for us tomorrow."
It took the Eagles just two pitchers to get through this afternoon's game. Senior Evan Lumbert pitched a quality start for the Green and Blue. Lumbert (3-2) hurled 6.0 innings, struck out six, walked none and allowed two earned runs.
Junior Hunter McGarry threw the final three frames for FGCU. He struck out one and gave up just one hit to the 10 batters he faced. McGarry picked up his fourth save of the season. With one more save, McGarry will tie for eighth in FGCU program history for number of saves in a single season. The record is currently 12, held by Sterling Koerner (2017).
The Tigers struck early and put up one run before the Eagles had a chance to respond. Junior Kohl Gilmore plated classmate Marc Coffers with a sac fly in the home half of the first to even things up at 1-1. Towson then regained the lead using an RBI single to post a 2-1 advantage after two complete frames.
Gilmore tied things up for the Eagles again with an RBI single in the third that scored senior Jay Hayes. From there, the Green and Blue never looked back. Freshman Joe Kinker added an RBI of his own and junior Alex Brait tacked on two to give FGCU its final 5-2 lead.
Coffers and Hayes each scored two runs for the Green and Blue and freshman Jalen Townsend came home on one of Brait's RBIs.
Defensively, this was a strong game for the Eagles. Junior Richie Garcia and Hayes each finished the day with three assists and the team did not make any errors. This was FGCU's first game of the season that the pitching staff gave up zero walks. However, the Eagles conceded two triples after allowing just one all season prior to today.
FGCU won all six of its weekend non-conference series' this season. The only other time in school history the Eagles won six or more three- or four-game series against non-conference opponents came in 2017 when they went on to win the A-SUN Championship and compete as the No. 2 seed at the NCAA Chapel Hill Regional.
Up Next:
The Eagles and the Tigers will return to Swanson Stadium tomorrow at noon for the series finale. The Green and Blue will be looking to sweep the weekend series for the first time since a matchup against LIU Brooklyn back in February.
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