FGCU Baseball @ Miami Recap

The FGCU baseball team (24-13, 6-3 A-SUN) fell 13-4 to No. 22 Miami (26-12, 10-8 ACC) on Tuesday night at Mark Light Field. The Hurricanes currently have an RPI of 20 and are nationally ranked in multiple polls after their sweep over Virginia last weekend.

"I thought we got a good start from Sebastian in his first-ever start," head coach Dave Tollett said. "Our bullpen was not good after that. We gave up eight runs and that's hard to come back from. This was definitely one of the best Miami teams that we've faced. On the offensive side, we did have 11 hits but we left 12 guys on. We could've made the game interesting if we could've pitched a little bit better."

The Hurricanes put up a pair of runs in their opening at-bats to take an early 2-0 lead over the Green and Blue. Senior Jay Hayes responded for the Eagles two frames later with sac fly that plated junior Marc Coffers and trimmed the deficit down to 2-1.

Junior Sebastian Gruszecki (0-2) made his first start of the season in tonight's game. After the initial two runs, Gruszecki kept the Hurricanes off the board for the next three frames and fanned a career-high five batters in his longest outing as an Eagle (4.2 innings). He was relieved by sophomore Tyler Shuck in the bottom of the fifth after letting up three runs that extended the Hurricanes' lead to 5-1.  Those three runs were the only ones charged to the starter.

FGCU acted on the push with three runs of its own in the top of the sixth. Freshman Joe Kinker and senior Eric Gonzalez reached on a walk and a single and were moved into scoring position after a sacrifice bunt by junior Cameron Krzeminski. Coffers brought both in with a double that made it a two-run ballgame at 5-3.

The Canes got to work quickly in the bottom of the sixth and tagged a run against Shuck within the first three at-bats. Sophomore Gus Carter and junior Brenden Heiss each made relief appearances during the frame. Both were charged in Miami's eventual scoring spree that put the team up 13-3.

Juniors Kohl Gilmore and Richie Garcia reached one after the other in the seventh, forcing the Canes to make a pitching change. Freshman Hunter Fornari, who pinch ran for Gilmore, was brought in on an RBI single off the bat of Gonzalez for the Eagles' fourth run of the night. The run was the first of Fornari's career and the last of the night for both teams.

Up Next:
The Green and Blue will return to Swanson Stadium to host Jacksonville (21-16, 7-5 A-SUN) for an A-SUN conference series April 18-20. The teams will face off at 6:30 p.m. both Thursday and Friday night before the series finale at 2 p.m. on Saturday. FGCU currently leads the all-time series between the two teams 20-16 and holds a 9-7 edge at the Nest. Jacksonville was 64 in the RPI last week and is currently third in the A-SUN Conference standings behind FGCU (second) and Liberty (first), making this weekend a battle between two of the best teams in the league.