Baseball April 07, 2017 Ricky Hazel, Associate AD

Hatters and Eagles Set to Renew Diamond Rivalry

The Stetson baseball team will try to carry the momentum from an ASUN sweep last weekend over NJIT into the second weekend of the conference season when they host No. 9 Florida Gulf Coast for a three-game series beginning Friday night at Melching Field.

All three games in the series will be broadcast on ESPN3 with Pete Blais and Evan Weston calling the action.

The Hatters (13-18, 3-0) had an up and down week since completing a sweep of the Highlanders. Stetson played at Florida on Tuesday night, building a 10-1 lead through four innings before the game was canceled. On Wednesday night the Hatters were not able to get the bats going early enough in a 5-3 loss to UCF.

Florida Gulf Coast (24-7, 1-2) has hit its first rough spot of the year. The Eagles went into their conference opening weekend against Jacksonville riding their second 10-game win streak of the year, but the Dolphins snapped the streak with a 10-5 decision on Saturday before taking a 5-2 win in the series finale in extra innings.

The Eagles, who posted a home win over then No. 1 Florida State on March 15, made the trip to Tallahassee this week and lost 7-6 in a walk-off on Tuesday before dropping a 3-2 weather shortened game on Wednesday.

The result is that the Eagles have now lost more games in the first week of April than they lost in the first two months of the season combined.

FGCU leads the all-time series against Stetson 19-11, but the teams split the four games last year, including the ASUN Tournament title game, which the Hatters won in dramatic fashion to clinch a berth in the NCAA tournament.

For first year Stetson coach Steve Trimper, this will be his first encounter with the Eagles. Trimper enters the weekend just six wins shy of 500 in his coaching career, a mark FGCU head coach Dave Tollett reached on March 5 of this year.

The series will pit the top two weekend pitching rotations in the ASUN against each other. Combined, the six starting pitchers this weekend have a 2.71 ERA on the year and are averaging 10.4 strikeouts per nine innings.

The opening game will pit Stetson junior Brooks Wilson (2-2, 3.33) against FGCU junior Kutter Crawford (5-0, 1.04). Wilson is second in the nation in total strikeouts with 72 while Crawford, a transfer from Indian River State College, was one of 10 pitchers on the Perfect Game mid-season All-America team.

Friday's series opener is also the Hatters' annual Pink Out game in conjunction with the Zeta Tau Alpha sorority.

Saturday's second game, which will pit Stetson sophomore right-hander Jack Perkins (3-3, 2.67) against FGCU junior left-hander, and DeLand native, Josh Dye (5-1, 3.14), will also be the annual Strikeout Autism Day at the park.

On Sunday, Stetson sophomore right-hander Logan Gilbert (5-0, 2.32) will take of FGCU veteran, senior right-hander Garrett Anderson (2-0, 3.53).

Hatters Quick Hitters

The series against FGCU continues a busy early April stretch for the Hatters. Stetson will play 14 games over the next 20 days before having a weekend off at the end of the month.
FGCU comes in with the top pitching staff in the ASUN with a 3.17 team ERA for the year. Stetson is fourth in the league with a 4.08 ERA.
The Hatters and Eagles are also first and second in the league in strikeouts per nine innings by their pitchers. Stetson leads the way, and is eighth nationally, with 10.0 K/9 while FGCU is second, 29th nationally, at 9.2 K/9.
Overall, Stetson is fourth in the nation with 310 total strikeouts while FGCU is tied for 16th with 282.
The Hatters are coming off a 5-3 loss at UCF on Wednesday night. Stetson had just one hit going to the eighth inning of that game before getting home runs from Colton Lightner and Austin Hale.
Weekend starting pitchers Jack Perkins and Brooks Wilson both got some work in on Wednesday. Perkins pitched three innings, allowing a run on three hits with a pair of strikeouts while Wilson turned in a 1-2-3 eighth with a pair of strikeouts.
Freshman Austin Bogart started the game for Stetson, allowing three earned runs on five hits over 2.2 innings of work to fall to 0-3 on the year.
In addition to not getting a deserved win on their ledger Tuesday against Florida, the Hatters also lost plenty of individual stats with the cancelation of the game. When the game was stopped, all nine members of the starting lineup had at least one hit.
Sophomore Jack Gonzalez had three hits, including a pair of doubles, and junior Austin Hale had two hits, including his first home run of the year, scored three runs and drove in three. As a team, the Hatters had a season-high six doubles, with freshman Jorge Arenas also picking up two.
Freshman Ryan Stark had his second strong outing against the Gators, allowing one run on five hits with three strikeouts over four innings of work.