DELAND, Florida (March 21, 2021) – The FIU baseball team continued its domination of the Wichita State Shockers on Sunday, as the Panthers were firing on all cylinders in the 9-2 victory to sweep the weekend series.
Garrett Rukes pitched his best game as Panther, as the lefty went 6.2 innings, allowed just one run and struck out five batters for his second win of the season. The bullpen trio of
Everett Hurst,
Steven Casey and
Angel Tiburcio combined for a scoreless final 2.1 innings of relief.
The Panther offense got started early on Sunday afternoon, after
Steven Ondina scored in the first inning on a
Seth Cannady double down the right-field line to give FIU a 1-0 lead. A mix of WSU errors and Panther small ball put FIU up 3-0 in the second frame, before the Shockers finally scored in the top of the fifth to make it 3-1.
Adrian Figueroa got the next round of FIU scoring going, as he continued his tear at the plate with an RBI single that brought home
Alec Sanchez. After a WSU pitching change,
Derek Cartaya produced a perfectly placed bunt single to drive in
Juan Teixeira and increase the lead to 5-2. FIU added one more run in the frame when
Dante Girardi was hit by a pitch with bases loaded to score Figueroa and push the lead to 6-1.
FIU got three insurance runs in the later innings, as
Luis Chavez singled home a run in the seventh before Teixeira launched a two-run homer in the eighth to make it 9-2
Cartaya led the FIU offense with his first three-hit game of the season, while Teixeira, Cannady and Sanchez each had a pair of base knocks. Girardi and Teixeira each had two RBIs.
UP NEXT
FIU takes on Stetson at home on Tuesday, March 23, for the final tune-up before Conference USA play starts next weekend. First pitch is slated for 7 p.m. ET and can streamed on CUSA.tv.
SOCIAL MEDIA
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