BOWLING GREEN, Kentucky (April 10, 2022) – To close out the longest road swing of the season, the FIU baseball team topped the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers 6-5 in dramatic come-from-behind fashion on Sunday afternoon.
"Very proud of the fight our players showed today. We got behind and fought back to get back in the game and eventually took the lead", coach
Mervyl Melendez said. "There was timely hitting when we needed it and the bullpen got outs when we needed them to. We competed hard today and this is a kind of game that we can build off of moving forward in league play."
Headlined by
Robert Sotolongo, five different Panthers tallied multi-hit games in the series finale. Sotolongo led the way with three base knocks of his own and two RBIs.
Jorge Ramirez stayed locked in at the plate with two more hits that included a two-run single in the sixth to tie the game.
The Panther pitching trio of
Ryan Cabarcas,
Zac Lampton and
Angel Tiburcio combined to fan 15 Hilltopper batters for the most strikeouts in a Conference USA game for FIU since 2019.
WKU struck first with a run in the second before
Alec Sanchez tied it up with a single swing of the bat for the centerfielder's team-leading ninth home run of the season.
FIU took the lead for the first time two batters later when
Adrian Figueroa scored on a Sotolongo single up the middle to give the Blue & Gold a 2-1 advantage halfway through the fourth.
The homestanding Hilltoppers countered by scoring a pair of runs in the fourth and another in the fifth to make it a 5-2 game.
With two outs in the top of the sixth, the Panther bats woke up and plated three runs to tie the game at five. The two-out rally, which was assisted by a WKU error to keep the inning alive, was highlighted by the Ramirez two-RBI single that plated Sotolongo and Figueroa.
A
Ruben Carpio single to center put the winning run on the basepaths.
Mario Zabala, who was pinch-running for Carpio, came home to score three batters when Figueroa slashed a base hit through the left side of the infield.
Tiburcio moves to 2-1 on the season after tossing a masterful 3.1 shutout innings with six strikeouts to earn the win.
UP NEXT
The Panthers welcome Southern Miss to FIU Baseball Stadium for a three-game series that starts on April 14.
SOCIAL MEDIA
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