HOUSTON (April 6, 2019) – Under a hot and humid Texas sky, the FIU baseball team swept Saturday's doubleheader with Rice by scores of 13-7 and 5-2.
With the first conference series win under their belts, the Panthers improve to 13-19 on the season and 4-8 in Conference USA play. Rice slides to 14-20 and 5-7 in league play.
Nick MacDonald went seven innings of four earned run ball for the win in game one, while Evan Kravetz suffered the loss for the Owls.
Austin Shenton and
Juan Teixeira each went 3-for-4 in Saturday's opener. The pair of
Logan Allen and
Angel Tiburcio tallied a pair of hits.
Javier Valdes led the RBI parade with three followed by Shenton and
Luis Chavez with two.
The scoring started early with a Shenton double to right that scored
Derek Cartaya in the opening frame. FIU added to its lead when Valdes rocketed a no-doubter to right. Shenton and Teixeira scored on a third inning homer to push the Panther lead to 4-0.
Rice scored a five spot in the home half of the third, but FIU answered with a pair in the fifth and sixth before scoring one more in the seventh for a 9-5 lead.
The Panthers put the game away in the eighth by scoring four in the frame. A Rice rally fell short when the Owls could only mustard a run in the eighth and one in the ninth. FIU took game one by a score of 13-7.
Franco Aleman had a career-day in game two, going 7.2 innings while striking out three and only allowing two for his first-career win. Jackson Parthasarthy was handed the loss for Rice.
Jose Garcia called game in the night cap, as the Panther belted two home runs deep into the Houston skyline. The hard-hitting righty tallied three RBIs on the night.
Derek Cartaya also added two hits with an RBI.
Allen singled and later scored on Garcia's first home run in the second that gave FIU an early 2-0 lead.
Chris Williams singled and came around to score in the fifth to push the Panthers lead to 3-0.
Cartaya was a menace on the base paths in the eighth inning by reaching via a bunt single before stealing third and forcing an error on the attempt that allowed him to score safely.
FIU led 4-0 before Rice pushed across two runs in the eighth.
Garcia put the game on ice in the ninth with a solo shot before
Jan Figueroa slammed the door in the ninth for this third save of the season.
UP NEXT
FIU takes the midweek off to prepare for a weekend showdown with Southern Miss starting April 12th.
SOCIAL MEDIA
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