MIAMI (May 21, 2017) – The FIU baseball team entered the final weekend of the 2017 regular season looking to lock up a spot in this year's upcoming Conference USA Baseball Championship and the Panthers did that in dominant fashion.
FIU swept the Hilltoppers and earned the No. 7 seed in the upcoming Conference USA tournament.
The Panthers enjoyed an offensive outburst throughout the weekend, scoring 40 runs and collecting 40 hits against WKU pitching, highlighted by a 23-6 win Thursday night. The Panthers pounded out a season-high 18 hits en route to the 17-run win in the series opener. Freshman
Javier Valdes was a big part of the Game One win, hitting 3-for-5 with seven RBI.
A day later, FIU clinched a spot in the conference tourney with a 6-0 blanking of WKU. Freshman
Tyler Myrick delivered a sterling start and three FIU home runs led to the team's second-straight win over the Hilltoppers. Myrick pitched a career-best seven shutout innings, allowed five hits and struck out six.
FIU completed the sweep with an impressive 11-2 victory on Saturday. More of the FIU hit parade occurred early in the contest when FIU sprinted to an 8-1 lead after three innings. Knowing they had to win Saturday to secure the No. 7 seed, the Panthers scored quickly, plating two in the first, two in the second and four in the third.
FIU opens the conference tournament against No. 2 Old Dominion at 1:30 p.m. EDT Wednesday from Biloxi, Mississippi.
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About FIU Athletics: FIU Athletics is home to more than 400 student-athletes in 18 different sports. Athletic events are played in eight different venues on FIU's campuses (Modesto A. Maidique and Biscayne Bay), including Lime Court at FIU Arena and Riccardo Silva Stadium.
About FIU: Florida International University is classified by Carnegie as a "R1: Doctoral Universities - Highest Research Activity" and recognized as a Carnegie Community Engaged university. It is a public research university with colleges and schools that offers bachelor's, master's and doctoral programs in fields such as business, engineering, computer science, international relations, architecture, law and medicine. As one of South Florida's anchor institutions, FIU contributes almost $9 billion each year to the local economy and is ranked second in Florida in Forbes Magazine's "America's Best Employers" list. FIU graduates are consistently among the highest paid college graduates in Florida and are among the leaders of public and private organizations throughout South Florida. FIU is Worlds Ahead in finding solutions to the most challenging problems of our time. FIU emphasizes research as a major component of its mission with multiple state-of-the-art research facilities including the Wall of Wind Research and Testing Facility, FIU's Medina Aquarius Program and the Advanced Materials Engineering Research Institute. FIU has awarded more than 220,000 degrees and enrolls more than 54,000 students in two campuses and centers including FIU Downtown on Brickell, FIU@I-75, the Miami Beach Urban Studios, and Tianjin, China. FIU also supports artistic and cultural engagement through its three museums: Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum, the Wolfsonian-FIU, and the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU. FIU is a member of Conference USA and more than 400 student-athletes participating in 18 sports. For more information about FIU, visit http://www.fiu.edu/.
