FGCU Baseball vs USF Recap

The FGCU baseball team (27-14, 9-3 A-SUN) fell 6-1 to USF (19-20, 2-10 American) in a midweek battle at Swanson Stadium Wednesday night.

"We have to play better," head coach Dave Tollett said. "From a pitching standpoint, we walked a bunch of guys. On the offense side, we struggled in the top of our lineup. It's tough to win ballgames when both parts of the game aren't going well for you. We didn't swing the bats well and we didn't pitch well, so we will have to put it behind us."

The Bulls got on the board quickly, tagging one run up against the Eagles' starting arm in each of the first two frames. Junior Sebastian Gruszecki (0-3) started today's Green and Blue staff day. In his second start of the season, Gruszecki made it through 3.0 innings of work and fanned three.

Sophomore Tyler Shuck took over the mound in the top of the fourth, but USF kept attacking the Eagle pitching and tacked on another two runs to its lead, making it a 4-0 ballgame. After facing five batters, junior Brenden Heiss relieved Shuck and ended the inning with a strikeout and a play at home plate.

FGCU put up its first run of the day in the bottom of the fourth inning. Senior Eric Gonzalez led off the inning with a double down the right field line and eventually came around to score on a wild pitch.

The Bulls responded to the push by sending another two runs across in the top of the fifth to extend their advantage to 6-1. They threatened to score again when they worked runners onto the corners in the sixth, but sophomore Gus Carter was called out from the bullpen and closed out the frame with a swinging K.

Carter cruised through a 1-2-3 inning in the seventh – the first, and only, of the night against USF. Juniors Trey Vickery and Keegan Collett combined to toss the final six outs of the night.

Throughout the course of the game, the Green and Blue left 14 on base compared to the visitors' 11. Gonzalez led the offense with two hits, while junior Richie Garcia and freshman Joe Kinker tallied one apiece. Tonight's game marked just the fifth time this season that the team has finished a game without recording an RBI.

Up Next
FGCU will host North Alabama (11-29, 5-9 A-SUN) for an A-SUN Conference series April 26-28 at Swanson Stadium. First pitch is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on Friday, 2 p.m. on Saturday, and 1 p.m. on Sunday. These will be the first meetings between the two teams. The Lions are new to the conference and in the midst of a reclassifying period as they just jumped up to DI.