RUSTON, La – The FIU baseball season came to an end Friday night, losing 8-5 to the three-seed Western Kentucky Hilltoppers in an elimination game at the 2024 Conference USA Championship.

FIU closed out their season with a 27-30 record, a six-win improvement from 2023. In addition, the program finished 11-13 in CUSA, finishing sixth overall their best conference record since 2019, and qualifying for the Championship for the first time since 2018.
 
The Panthers were looking to escape elimination to begin the day as Western Kentucky took the early lead in the third on a RBI single. FIU responded in the fourth with three runs on the board, beginning with a RBI from Ryne Guida scoring Brylan West. Jeff Liquori ripped a double in the right field corner to bring around Guida for the lead. Alex Ulloa logged a RBI single to right field, closing the inning up 3-1.

Western Kentucky got three runs back of their own in the bottom half on a three-run homer to make it an one-run advantage. A sacrifice bunt in the fifth scored the fifth run of the night for the Hilltoppers.
 
FIU responded thanks to Armando Becerra who hit his second homer of the tournament in the sixth, cutting the deficit to 5-4. Into the seventh with runners on the corners, Becerra hit a line drive single to center, scoring Nick Pitelli for the tie.
 
The Hilltoppers posted a run in the seventh and tacked on a pair of insurance runs in the eighth, eventually closing away with a victory to move on in the CUSA Championship.
 
Joel Pineiro made his 15th start of the season, allowing four earned runs in 3.1 innings on four strikeouts. Cameron Knox came in for his second appearance of the tournament, allowing just one earned run in 2.2 innings thrown. David Eckaus suffered the loss (2-2), giving up the eventual go-ahead run in an inning. Jackson Ritchey worked the eighth, surrendering two runs on three strikeouts.
 
Three players posted multi-hit efforts (Becerra, Liquori, and West) as the offense had a standout overall year, hitting .293 as a ballclub with 83 homers, third in program history.

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