MIAMI (March 26, 2015) – The FIU baseball team (11-14, 3-3 C-USA) will travel to Charleston, W.Va. to face the Marshall Thundering Herd (7-16, 1-5) in a three-game set beginning on Friday, March 27. First pitch of the series opener set for 6 p.m. ET from Appalachian Power Park.
The series will continue on Saturday, March 28, at 4 p.m. and will wrap up on Sunday, March 29, at 1 p.m.
On Friday, right-hander
Cody Crouse (2-2, 3.71 ERA, 21K) will take the mound for the Panthers. The Thundering Herd will throw right-handed hurler Matt Margaritonda (0-3, 7.01 ERA, 13K). Saturday will feature right-hander
Andres Nunez (3-2, 1.72 ERA, 32K) versus right-hander JD Hammer (0-1, 3.63 ERA, 29K). In Sunday's finale, sophomore
Chris Mourelle (4-2, 3.93 ERA, 21K) will get the start and will square off against Michael Taylor (1-1, 1.77 ERA, 28K).
Fans can listen to FIU's @PetePelegrin for all of this weekend's action on the
FIU Sports Radio Network.
FIU took a tough non-conference 3-2 (10 inning) loss at Bethune-Cookman on Tuesday.
The Panthers improved to 3-3 in conference play during last weekend's series where they took two-of-three games from the Charlotte 49ers. Junior
Edwin Rios was named the Conference USA Hitter of the Week for hitting .583 (7-of-12) with four homers and eight RBI in the series. After dropping the series opener with the 49ers on Friday, 5-4, FIU responded with a 23-1 (7) win to tie the series at 1-1. Rios' was a big part of that win going a perfect 4-for-4, including a double and three home runs with six RBI. His six RBI were a career-high. He was inches away from his fourth home run however, his third hit of the game resulted in an RBI double. The three home runs in a single game tied the FIU school record (Mike Martinez vs. Arkansas State – May 8, 2010) and he became the first C-USA player to record three long balls in a game since Rice's Anthony Rendon on June 5, 2010.
FIU finished the series hitting .369 with six home runs and 29 RBI. Led by Rios, who went 7-for-12 (.583) with four home runs, one double and eight RBI, the Panthers tallied a .604 team slugging percentage versus Charlotte. On the mound, FIU recorded a 2.52 team ERA with 24 strikeouts in 25 innings of action.
The Panthers come into the weekend set with a 3-0 mark all-time versus the Thundering Herd.
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