MIAMI, FL – Rich Witten and his ball club found themselves with a great opportunity on Tuesday night to start the week off on a high note. After losing three out of four games the week prior, one to Miami at loanDepot park and two to Florida Atlantic, FIU could’ve bounced back with a win over the 6-9 FGCU Eagles, but that was not the case, falling by a final score of 8-4.
Could Have Gone Better On The Mound
Juan Villarreal made his first start of the season for FIU. He’s been coming out of the bullpen as a long man, so nothing was new except that he would be starting. He would allow three runs off four hits while striking out four batters in two innings.
After a nice first inning, which included two strikeouts, Villarreal began working deep counts, and hits began to fall for the Eagles. With two outs in the inning, he surrendered all three runs.
Following Villarreal, FIU used six pitchers. Hard-throwing righty Toby Haarer allowed two more runs in the top of the sixth inning. Lefty Tristan Dietrch allowed the inherited base runner, which scored, making that the second run that Haarer allowed.
The Panthers’ offense ran into plenty of bad luck on Tuesday night. Many hard-hit balls just went into the gloves of the Eagles’ defense.
Freshman Cole Cleveland hit his second home run of the season in the bottom of the third inning to put the Panthers on the board, but they still trailed 3-1.
Shortstop Alex Ulloa hit his second home run of the season in the bottom of the eighth inning, marking the fourth and final run of the game.
With the loss, FIU drops to 12-6 on the season and will begin a four-game set against the Bucknell Bison on Thursday, March 13th, at 6:30 pm. This will be both the final non-conference weekend series and the final four-game series of the season.
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