HATTIESBURG, Miss. (May 20, 2015) – The FIU baseball team (26-29) held on to knock off the top-seeded Rice Owls (35-19), 6-5, on Wednesday afternoon in the opening round of the 2015 Conference USA Baseball Championships in Hattiesburg, Miss.
Sophomore
JC Escarra (1-for-2) drove in three runs, including a two-run home run and senior
Brian Portelli went 3-for-5 with two runs scored to lead the Panthers. Junior
Zack Soria (2-for-5), senior
Julius Gaines (1-for-3) and junior
Austin Rodriguez (1-for-4) each recorded RBIs in the game.
Sophomore
Williams Durruthy (2-1) earned the victory, pitching two and two-thirds of relief, while allowing no runs and two hits. The right-hander struck out four Owls. Second-Team All-C-USA selection
Danny Dopcio picked up his 10
th save of the season, allowing three runs on one hit, while striking out three in two and one-third innings of action. Starter
Chris Mourelle earned the "no decision" lasting four innings before the game was delayed an 1:54 due to weather. The right hander gave up six hits, resulting in two runs.
The Owls took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second with an RBI-double by Hunter Kopycinski that scored Tristan Gray from third. Rice extended its lead to 2-0 in the bottom of the third. With runners on first and third with no outs, a 6-4-3 double play gained two outs for the Panthers but allowed Charlie Warren to score from third.
FIU answered in the top of the fourth. Following back-to-back hits (single by Rios and double by Portelli) to lead off the inning the Panthers had runners in scoring positon with no outs. A sacrifice fly by Escarra plated Rios to cut the deficit to 2-1 in favor of Rice. The Panthers tied the game 2-2 as Gaines doubled to left-centerfield, scoring Portelli from third. On the ensuing at-bat, Rodriguez singled to leftfield to give FIU a 3-2 lead. Soria added FIU's fourth run of the game with an RBI-single to leftfield, bringing Gaines home from third.
Escarra gave FIU a 6-2 lead in the top of the fifth with a two-run blast to right-centerfield. The homer was the fifth of the season for the Panthers' catcher.
After a weather delay that lasted nearly two hours, the game remained in favor of the Panthers, 6-2, until the bottom of the ninth.
With one out and the bases loaded, Rice drove in two with an RBI-single to left centerfield. The Owls added one more run on a ground out to Gaines to cut FIU's lead to 6-5. However, Dopico got a ground out to second to preserve the Panthers' victory.
The win improved FIU to 1-2 all-time in the C-USA Baseball Championship and moved the Panthers to 3-14 all-time versus Rice.
FIU will next face the UTSA Roadrunners (33-23) in the winner's bracket. First pitch is scheduled for 5 p.m. ET.
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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 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. It is a public research university with colleges and schools that offer more than 180 bachelor's, master's and doctoral programs in fields such as engineering, international relations, architecture, law and medicine. As one of South Florida's anchor institutions, FIU contributes $8.9 billion each year to the local economy. 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. FIU has awarded over 200,000 degrees and enrolls more than 54,000 students in two campuses and three centers including FIU Downtown on Brickell, FIU@I-75, and the Miami Beach Urban Studios. FIU also supports artistic and cultural engagement through its three museums: the Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum, the Wolfsonian-FIU, and the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU. FIU is a member of Conference USA and has over 400 student-athletes participating in 18 sports. For more information about FIU, visit http://www.fiu.edu/.
