BIRMINGHAM (May 13, 2022) – To open the final road weekend of the 2022 season, the FIU baseball team came from behind to tame the UAB Blazers by a score of 6-5 on Friday night.
The 6-5 series-opening series victory was the first time this season that the Panthers trailed after seven innings and prevailed.
Surging Panther outfielder
Ruben Carpio extended his hit streak to a team-best nine games in the win with a trio of hits.
Adrian Figueroa and
Alec Sanchez also spearheaded the Blue & Gold attack with multi-hit showings of their own.
After Panther starter
Patrick Pridgen uncharacteristically tossed 2.2 innings with three strikeouts,
Richie Pena stabilized the pitching by throwing 1.2 innings of shutout ball. Pena also fanned a trio of Blazers against only one free pass.
Angel Tiburcio picked up his team-leading fourth win of the season after shutting down the UAB bats with two shutout innings in relief.
The Blazers started the weekend with a bang when the UAB leadoff batter took Pridgen deep to right field on the third pitch of the game giving the home team an early 1-0 lead.
After back-to-back singles to open the top of the second by Carpio and
Matthew Gonzalez,
Jayden Melendez gave FIU a 2-1 lead with a single to left field that scored both Panthers.
UAB answered in the bottom of the second with a run to tie the game at 2-2 after two in the books.
The game stayed tied until
Noel Perez made it 3-2 in favor of the Panthers with his third home run of the year. All three of Perez's dingers have come since April 22.
Also in the fifth, Sanchez scored on a UAB error off the bat of Figueroa to make it 4-2 Panthers after five.
UAB came storming back to go up 5-4 with a three-run seventh.
The Cardiac Cats got the late-inning magic working when Figueroa singled to open the top of the eighth. After a double off the bat of Carpio, Figueroa scored on a Gonzalez RBI groundout to tie it at 5-all.
Tiburcio got out of a two-on with one-out jam in the home half of the eighth to set up a pivotal final frame.
In the ninth, FIU was down to its last out before
Steven Ondina walked on five pitches. A Sanchez single to center moved Ondina to scoring position and brought up Figueroa with a chance to play the hero.
On a 1-0 pitch, Figueroa slapped a single to left allowing Ondina to score with ease and to put FIU back up 6-5.
Just like the inning before, Tiburcio worked himself out of a jam to preserve the 6-5 Panther victory.
UP NEXT
FIU and UAB will play in game two of the weekend set on Saturday. First pitch is slated for 3 p.m. ET.
SOCIAL MEDIA
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