The FGCU baseball team (22-8, 4-2 A-SUN) will travel to Miami (20-12, 7-8 ACC) to take on the Hurricanes for the first of a home-and-home midweek series on Tuesday, April 9. The game is slated for 6 p.m. at Alex Rodriguez Park at Mark Light Field and will be streamed on the ACC Network Extra.
The teams will then face off at Swanson Stadium for a 6:30 p.m. game on Wednesday, April 10. The game will be streamed on YouTube Live and will have live commentary. The game will serve as Military Appreciation Day and will be sponsored by Bank of America.
Last Time Out:
The Eagles picked up their first conference sweep since 2017 when they defeated Lipscomb in all three games at Swanson Stadium.
On Friday, the Eagles used a pair of home runs off the bats of seniors Eric Gonzalez and Jay Hayes to claim a 5-3 victory over the Bison.
Junior Mason Studstill pitched a quality start for the Eagles through 7.0 innings. He struck out eight, walked three and gave up three runs on as many hits.
FGCU staged the largest comeback in school history en route to its 10-9 victory over Lipscomb on Saturday afternoon. After five innings, the Green and Blue trailed 8-0 but scored two in the sixth, one in the seventh and seven in the eighth to cap off the historic rally.
Junior Brenden Heiss pitched 2.2 scoreless innings in relief and earned his first win of the season. Classmate Hunter McGarry picked up his fifth save of the season and is now in a four-way tie for eighth on the single-season save charts.
The Green and Blue completed the sweep with a 6-2 victory on Sunday afternoon. FGCU tallied three runs in the opening frame and cruised from there. Sophomore Nikolas Bitner earned his first save of the season for keeping the Bisons off the boards in the final 1.1 innings. He entered the game with two runners on in the eighth but did not allow either to cross home plate.
The Eagles have moved up to second in the A-SUN Conference standings after last weekend's sweep over Lipscomb. The team's offense still sits at the top of the league. The Eagles have the best team batting average (.293), the most runs (229), the highest on-base percentage (.406), and a conference-high 200 RBIs.
Hayes and freshman Joe Kinker each have a .375 batting average, the highest of the team. Hayes leads the A-SUN with 36 RBIs and a .688 slugging percentage, and has a league-high 77 total bases credited to his name. Kinker's on-base percentage of .511 is at the top of the conference.
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FGCU has also been dominant on the mound. The team ERA (4.13) sits behind only Liberty (2.99). Studstill is third in the nation with an average of 3.86 hits allowed per nine innings. His 64 strikeouts are the most of any A-SUN pitcher and he also leads the conference in WHIP (0.82). Sophomore Tyler Shuck's six victories are the 10th-most in the nation. He needs just two more to enter a six-way tie for seventh place in single-season wins on the Eagle's all-time charts.
Scouting the Hurricanes:
Miami won two-of-three against conference foe Florida State last weekend. The Hurricanes shut out the Seminoles both Friday (11-0) and Saturday (4-0) before dropping Sunday's game 6-5.
Sophomore Raymond Gil leads the team with eight home runs and a .382 batting average. He has recorded at least one hit in 27 games this year.
Freshman Adrian Del Castillo has cranked out a team-high 35 RBIs and is one of two freshmen that have started every game for the Hurricanes this season.
Freshman Jordan Lala is second in the ACC with 15 stolen bases and has only been caught stealing twice.
Junior Evan McKendry has struck out a team-high 61 batters and owns a 3.91 ERA. His 5-1 record is the best of all Hurricane pitchers.
Series History:
Tuesday night's game will be the 25th meeting in the series between the Eagles and the Hurricanes. Miami currently holds a 19-5 edge, which includes a 13-3 mark at its home stadium. Last season, the Green and Blue earned a 1-0 triumph over the Hurricanes at Swanson Stadium in March.
Senior Evan Lumbert tossed eight innings and struck out a career-high 12 batters, letting up just one walk and two hits. Brait scored the only run of the day for the Eagles. Miami claimed the next two meetings by scores of 8-1 and 7-1, which were both at Alex Rodriguez Park. FGCU has a 1-3 record against Miami when the Hurricanes are ranked.
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