Box Score DeLand, Fla. ? Stetson held the early advantage in Sunday's rubber-game of the series, yet could not hold the lead and fell to Florida Gulf Coast 5-3.
Offensively Jeremy Cruz (Miami, Fla.), Frank Florio (Long Valley, NJ), and Justin Bass (DeLand, Fla.) each picked up two hits in the game. Bass was 2-for-2 with a walk raising his season average to a team-leading .389. Cruz is close behind at .388.
Stetson opened the scoring with a run in the 2nd and 3rd innings. In the 2nd Bass led off with a walk, advanced to third on a single to right center by Florio, and scored on an RBI fielder's choice by Brian Pruitt (Miami, Fla.).
In the 3rd inning Casey Frawley (New Haven, Ct.) was hit by a pitch with one out. Cruz singled up the middle advancing Frawley to second. Bass followed with another single up the middle driving in Frawley to make the score 2-0 Hatters.
FGCU tied the score in the top of the 4th inning on a two-run home run by Jason Peacock (Bartow, Fla.). It was the 8th home run of the season for the player who came into the game leading the A-Sun in batting average at .442.
The Eagles went ahead to stay with a 3-run 7th inning. Two of the runs came off starter Robby Donovan (Royal Palm Beach, Fla.) while the third was credited to reliever David Burns (Seminole, Fla.) who was pitching on very little rest. Burns started Friday night's game pitching 7 2/3 innings. Today he threw 1/3 of an inning giving up two hits, one run and striking out a batter. Donovan threw 6 1/3 innings allowing nine hits and four runs while striking out two. He took the loss dropping his season record to 3-5. Freshman Will Dorsey (Atlantic Beach, Fla.) hurled the final 2 1/3 innings allowing no runs and striking out three batters.
Stetson brought the tying run to the plate in the bottom of the 9th inning, yet could only manage to score a single run. Bass scored on a sacrifice fly by Jacon deGrom (DeLeon Springs, Fla.).
With today's loss Stetson dropped to 20-30 overall and 10-17 in A-Sun play. FGCU is now 31-13 overall and 21-6 in conference. Stetson will return to Melching Field Friday to host USC Upstate in a very important three-game A-Sun series. Game times are 7:00 p.m. Friday, and a doubleheader Saturday beginning at 1:00 p.m. Hatters fans can see all the action on Hatter Vision with play-by-play provided by the voice of Stetson baseball Bill Topping. They can also follow the games on GameWatcher by going to www.gohatters.com and clicking on “Live Stats”.
