Zack Soria scored the winning run on a wild pitch by Nick Sandlin in the bottom of the 10th inning to lift FIU to a 6-5 win over No. 13 Southern Miss and send the Panthers to the Conference USA tournament in Hattiesburg, Miss. starting next Wednesday.
Soria led off the bottom of the 10th by lining his first triple of the season down the right field line. Sandlin (3-3) then intentionally walked Zach Files and Irving Lopez to bring Rey Perez to the plate with the bases loaded. With a 1-1 count, Sandlin uncorked a wild pitch past catcher Chuckie Robinson that allowed Soria to score and clinch a berth in the conference tournament for FIU.
With one more win, the Panthers (26-27, 13-15 Conference USA) clinch the seventh seed in the tournament. The Golden Eagles (36-16, 20-8 C-USA) are tied with Marshall for first place in the conference with two games to play in the regular season.
FIU had to rally late before it could get to extra innings. Down 5-4 in the bottom of the eighth inning, Lopez belted a solo home run off Sandlin over the right field wall to tie the score. Lopez was 3 for 4 with two RBI Friday and now has 10 hits in his last 16 at-bats.
The Panthers built a 4-0 lead with an RBI single by Lopez and a two-run single by Nick Day before the Eagles scored five unanswered runs.
Cody Crouse started for FIU. The junior right-hander pitched six innings and allowed three runs. Dominic LoBrutto pitched two innings in relief and did not allow an earned run to lower his ERA to 1.02. Williams Durruthy (2-3) picked up the win with two scoreless innings.
With three hits, Lopez raised his team-leading batting average to .343. Soria was 2 for 5 and scored three runs.
The Panthers and Eagles play the middle game of the series at 6:30 p.m. Friday. The game can be seen on PantherVision and heard on the FIU Sports Radio Network.
