Ft. Myers, Fla. – Things did not exactly as planned on Friday night for Stetson in the 2016 Atlantic Sun Conference opener as FGCU scored in each of the first four innings to build a 9-0 lead and cruised to an 11-6 win over the Hatters.

The loss snapped a four-game win streak for Stetson (16-14) and a five-game losing skid for FGCU (14-16) and put on hold any celebration for Hatters head coach Pete Dunn, who remains one win away from career victory number 1,300.

The teams will get together again on Saturday at 2 p.m. in the second game of the series.

The struggles started early for Stetson junior starter Mitchell Jordan (3-4), who allowed six runs on nine hits in just three innings of work.

“It was disappointing because, for the first three innings, every pitch was above the waist,” Dunn said. “His breaking ball was above the waist and his fastball was up. We know they are a good hitting team and they tattooed the ball over the ball park against Mitchell.

“You have to find a way, when you don't have your best stuff, to get the ball down. If we could have gotten a ground ball in a couple of those early situations, we might have been able to limit the damage.”

While Jordan was struggling against the FGCU offense, Eagles starter Brady Anderson (4-4) cruised through the first six innings against the Hatters. Will Mackenzie broke up Anderson's no-hit bid with two out in the fifth but, by that part of the game, the Eagles were up 9-0.

“There are not many teams that came come back from that and, with the way we are scuffling offensively, we didn't have much of a chance. We don't have the type of offense right now that can come back from a big deficit.

The Hatters did show some late offensive life in the game. Jack Machonis delivered a two-out double in the seventh and then scored on Mackenzie's second hit of the night.

In the eighth, the first five Hatters all had hits. Consecutive singles by Vance Vizcaino, Matt Morales and Jacob Koos loaded the bases. Kirk Sidwell drove in two with a single to extend his hitting streak to 10 games and John Fussell followed on the next pitch with a three-run homer.

“It gives you a little bit of spark for the rest of the series, but when you are trying to dig out of an 11-1 hole, there is just not much you can do,” Dunn said. “It was great that we made a run at it, but it was a little bit of a hollow victory. It is rare that you could ever come back and win that game.”

Behind Jordan, sophomore Ben Onyshko worked 3.1 innings of relief. He allowed three runs in his first inning of work, and two more in his final frame, but was solid in between. Senior Kevin Fagan closed out the final 1.2 innings.

The FGCU offense was led by preseason A-Sun Player of the Year Jake Noll, who had a career-high five hits and tied his career best with three doubles, one off each Stetson pitcher. Matt Rearson, Tyler Selesky, Jake Smith, Matt Roberts and Zach Spivey all had two hits as a part of a season-high 18 hits for the Eagles.

Morales and Mackenzie had two hits each to lead the Hatters, who finished with nine in the game, all off Anderson.