HATTIESBURG, Miss. (May 21, 2015) – A walk-off base-on-balls pushed the FIU baseball team (27-29) past the UTSA Roadrunners (33-24), 15-5, in seven innings on Thursday evening in the second round of the Conference USA Baseball Championships in Hattiesburg, Miss.
With the bases loaded and two outs, freshman
Eddie Silva drew a walk to bring in the game-winning run and advance to the Panthers to the next round of the winner's bracket.
FIU scored 15 runs on 16 hits as eight Panthers recorded at least one hit and one RBI versus the Roadrunners. Freshman
Jack Schaaf (3-for-5) and senior
Josh Anderson (3-of-4) led the Panthers with three hits apiece. Schaaf scored three runs, while Anderson drove in one run and scored another. Sophomore
JC Escarra went 2-for-3 with three RBI and three runs scored and First-Team All-C-USA selection
Edwin Rios was 2-for-2 with an RBI and three runs scored.
Freshman
Andres Nunez (6-5) earned the victory, allowing five runs on seven hits in six and two-thirds innings of action. The right-hander struck out eight Roadrunners.
UTSA took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first. An RBI-single by Trent Bowles scored Jesse Baker from third. FIU had a chance to respond during its half of the inning. With Rios on first, senior
Brian Portelli crushed a double to left-center field. Rios attempted to score on the hit but was thrown out at home to end the inning.
Portelli tied the game in the bottom of the third with an RBI-single to right. With a 1-2 count and the bases loaded, the Second-Team All-C-USA selection drove in Soria from third. One batter later, Escarra hit a single to right field to give FIU a 2-1 lead. The Panthers tacked on three more runs to take a 5-1 lead after RBI-singles by Anderson and senior
Julius Gaines and a wild pitch by UTSA's Patrick Herbelin.
A two-run home run by Kevin Markham in the top of the fifth cut FIU's lead to 5-3. The Panthers responded, exploding for seven runs in the bottom of fifth to take a commanding, 12-3 lead. The Roadrunners plated two more runs in the top of the seventh to make it 12-5 FIU. However, the Panthers scored three in the bottom of the seventh, including the game-winning RBI walk by Silva, to give FIU the 15-5 win.
FIU will next take the field on Saturday, May 23, at 10 a.m. ET. The Panthers will take on the winner of the UTSA-Middle Tennessee game.
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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/.
