MIAMI (March 9, 2015) – The FIU baseball team (8-7) will play a pair of games at the 2015 Snowbird Baseball Classic on Tuesday, March 10, in Port Charlotte, Fla.
The Panthers will take on Seton Hall (1-8) at 11 a.m. followed by the Saint Joseph's Hawks (1-8) at 3 p.m.
Fans can listen to FIU's @PetePelegrin for all of this week's action on the
FIU Sports Radio Network.
Live stats will also be made available via FIUSports.com.
FIU is looking to rebound from a weekend series loss to UConn as the Huskies took 2-of-3 from the Panthers at the FIU Baseball Stadium. FIU was led offensively by junior
Zach Soria, who hit .444 (4-of-9) versus the Huskies. Junior
Austin Rodriguez (.429; 3-of-7) and senior
Julius Gaines (.417; 5-of-12) were also among the team leaders for the Panthers. Junior
Edwin Rios notched a team-high five RBI versus UConn, including a two-run home run in Sunday's 7-4 win.
On the mound
Chris Mourelle picked up his second-straight with on Sunday. The right-hander tossed a season-high 7.2 innings, while allowing two runs on four hits and striking out five. Mourelle cruised through the first six innings on Saturday, giving up just one hit and allowing just two base runners in that span to give the Panthers an early 6-0 cushion. The Miami native tossed 106 pitches, holding the Huskies to a .154 team batting average in the win.
On the year, FIU is hitting .258 as a team with six home runs and 76 RBI. Senior
Brian Portelli comes into Tuesday's game with a .293 batting average (17-of-58), including a C-USA-best 11 doubles. Portelli's 12 RBI leads the squad.
On the hill, the Panthers' pitching staff has recorded 3.28 ERA with 131 strikeouts in 137 innings pitched. Freshmen
Garrett Cave and
David Lee are expected to get the starts on Tuesday. Cave comes into the mid-week game with a 1.65 ERA and 12 strikeouts in five appearances. Lee will be making his first start and owns a 4.50 ERA with 12 strikeouts in eight innings of action.
##### Fans are encouraged to follow the Panthers on Twitter (@FIUBaseball) and become a fan on Facebook (Facebook.com/FIUBaseball) for all the latest FIU Baseball news. Follow all of FIU's 18 athletic teams on Twitter (@FIUAthletics), Facebook (Facebook.com/FIUSports), YouTube (FIUPanthers), and Instagram (FIUathletics). #####About FIU Athletics: FIU Athletics is home to more than 400 student-athletes in 18 different sports. Athletic events are played in seven different venues on FIU's campuses (Modesto A. Maidique and Biscayne Bay), including FIU Arena and Ocean Bank Field at FIU Stadium. About FIU: Florida International University is recognized as a Carnegie engaged university. Its colleges and schools offer more than 180 bachelor¹s, master¹s and doctoral programs in fields such as engineering, international relations, architecture, law and medicine. As one of South Florida¹s anchor institutions, FIU is Worlds Ahead in its local and global engagement, finding solutions to the most challenging problems of our time. FIU emphasizes research as a major component of its mission. FIU has awarded 200,000 degrees and enrolls 54,000 students in two campuses and three centers including FIU Downtown on Brickell and the Miami Beach Urban Studios. FIU is a member of Conference USA and has 400 student-athletes participating in 18 sports. For more information about FIU, visit http://www.fiu.edu.
