The FGCU baseball team (22-9, 4-2 A-SUN) completed an ASUN Conference sweep over Lipscomb (15-15, 3-6 A-SUN) with a 6-2 win Sunday afternoon at Swanson Stadium.
"It is really tough to get a sweep in this conference," head coach Dave Tollett said. "When you do it, you have to really enjoy it. It's a special weekend when you can do that. The double play ball was big for us today. Every time they got something going, we were able to roll through it. Our offense has also been unbelievable. We have a threat in spots one through nine, which is something we haven't had in this program before."
The Eagles picked up where they left off yesterday and tallied three runs in the first frame. Senior Jay Hayes opened up the scoring with an RBI double that plated junior Marc Coffers. Fellow junior Kohl Gilmore and freshman Joe Kinker each added an RBI groundout that scored junior Alex Brait and Hayes, putting the home team up 3-0.
Sophomore Tyler Shuck (6-0) started on the hill for FGCU and kept Lipscomb off the board until the fourth inning when Maddux Houghton singled to center field and brought in teammate Chris Bashlor.
The Green and Blue responded with one more run in the fourth when junior Anthony Gonnella came home after a miscue by the Bisons' defense.
Shuck was relieved in the sixth inning by senior Justin Gill. The southpaw struck out the first batter that he faced and cruised through the next two outs.
Gonnella added a pair of insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth when he launched his second home run of the season out to right field. Senior Keith Stevens, who had started off the frame with a double, scored on the play.
Lipscomb's Haddon Adams opened up the eighth inning with a solo shot after working a full count. The homer trimmed the Eagles' lead down to 6-2, but the visitors would get no closer. Sophomore Nikolas Bitner tossed the final 1.1 frames for FGCU and was awarded his first save of the season for keeping the Bisons off the boards, despite having the tying run on deck.
Shuck earned his sixth victory of the season. With two more wins, he will enter a six-way tie for seventh place in single-season wins on the Eagle's all-time charts.
This was the first conference series sweep for FGCU since 2017. During that campaign, the Eagles swept three A-SUN opponents (NJIT, Lipscomb and Kennesaw State) and eventually captured the 2017 A-SUN Championship.
The Green and Blue turned a season-high four doubles plays in today's game. Garcia was credited with an assist in all three. The junior is now up to 262 career assists and needs just 19 more to register on the FGCU top 10 list.
Up Next:
The Green and Blue will next face the Miami Hurricanes (20-11, 7-7 ACC) in a home-and-home midweek series. The first game will be at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, April 9 at Alex Rodriguez Park at Mark Light Field. The teams will then play at Swanson Stadium at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 10. The game will serve as Military Appreciation Day and will be sponsored by Bank of America. The first game will be the 25th meeting in the series between the two teams, which the Hurricanes currently lead 19-5.
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