FIU Baseball Puts On Show Against C-USA’s Best, Demolish LA Tech

MIAMI, FL – The FIU Panthers looked to get back on a hot streak following a mid-week loss to the Miami Hurricanes, and they had to do so against the top dogs in Conference USA, Louisiana Tech.

FIU impressed on the road against Western Kentucky last week, but now begins a series against the Bulldogs, who have been battling with Dallas Baptist for the best overall record in C-USA.

Despite that, it was the Panthers who came out of the gate swinging, putting on a show in the second inning to get out to an early lead and never looked back, winning by a whopping score of 13-4.

“It was great to see them buy into the report and the approach that we were working through,” said head coach Rich Witten postgame. “We got some crooked numbers, and they gave up a couple of free ones. It’s huge to take advantage when their team makes a mistake. And we did that.”

It feels like that happens once a game for FIU – they don’t score a whole lot of runs per inning but instead pour a bunch of runs in a single inning, usually in the form of a two-out rally.

For a while, that was the story once more but the Panthers doubled down with five more runs in the sixth inning to turn a relatively close 7-4 game into a 12-4 blowout. The Bulldogs slowly crept back into the game with four straight runs before this but had no answer once being down by that big of a deficit.

Just about every batter for FIU made an impact tonight, but some players like Austin Dearing stood out with three hits, an RBI double, and a solo home run in the eighth inning to add insult to injury.

In total, the Panthers achieved 15 hits in tonight’s contest. Even still, they left 11 runners on base in the process.

FIU’s pitching put on a combined effort tonight as well, with Orlando Hernandez earning the W after throwing for two innings, giving up a single hit, and striking out three.

A great day in the office, all things considered. FIU stands with a 14-12 record and will take on the Bulldogs once more tomorrow at 6:30pm.