Eastern Michigan Athletics
Eastern Michigan University
1-4
Florida Gulf Coast
4-1
Eagles Overpowered in Midweek Defeat to FGCU
2/22/2017 9:41:00 PM | Baseball
Senior John Montgomery upped his average to .500 with three hits
Eastern (1-4) was led on offense by the red hot senior John Montgomery (Anaheim Hills, Calif.-JSerra), who upped his season average to .500 with his fourth career three-hit day. He also scored two runs. Sophomore Drake Lubin (West Bloomfield, Mich.-Walled Lake Northern) led the run scoring efforts with his first career two-RBI game, while freshman Nick Jones (Battle Creek, Mich.-Lakeview) also picked up his first career RBI on a sacrifice fly.
FGCU (4-1) came out of the gates with a good balance of patience and power, drawing two walks, followed by a three-run homer to give them a 3-0 lead without an out being recorded.
EMU was able to answer back in the top of the second though, as Lubin delivered a two-out, two-RBI single after back-to-back hits and a sac bunt, making it 3-2 early on. FGCU continued to pour it on, going for five runs over the next three innings to extend the lead to 8-2 after four innings.
After a scoreless fifth inning pitched by freshman James Harness (Huber Heights, Ohio-Wayne) in his collegiate debut, Eastern manufactured a run in the sixth. Back-to-back singles by redshirt senior Mike Mioduszewski (Dexter, Mich.-Dexter) and Montgomery began the inning, and Mioduszewski was advanced to third on a fly out. The next batter, Jones, was able to knock him in on a sacrifice fly, tightening the gap slightly to 8-3.
Junior Justin McMurtrey (Redding, Calif.-Shasta (Butte C.C.)) tossed a scoreless sixth inning himself, but FGCU was able to get back on the board in the seventh with four more runs on four hits and an error to grab their biggest lead, 12-3.
Eastern cut into the lead in a sloppy eighth inning for FGCU. Eastern loaded up the bags with two walks and an error. The first runner was scored with a hard earned RBI on a hit by pitch for freshman Drake Peggs (Knightstown, Ind.-Knightstown). EMU followed that up by scoring on a wild pitch to make it 12-5.
Senior Sam Delaplane (San Jose, Calif.-Leigh) came in to finish out the final 1.1 innings, and looked sharp, not allowing a base runner and striking out three of the four batters he faced. Despite getting a two-out double from Mioduszewski, Eastern was not able to get anything done offensively in the ninth, sealing the game.
EMU will get back into action this Friday, Feb. 24, for the first game of a stretch of five games in four days in Florida. EMU will square off with St. Bonaventure in Port Charlotte, Fla. with first pitch set for 1 p.m.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: DYE, Josh (1-0)
L: Thompson, Justin (0-1)
Batting:
2B: Mioduszewski, Mike 1
RBI: Jones, Nick 1 ; Peggs, Drake 1 ; Lubin, Drake 2
SH: Jones, Nick 1
SF: Jones, Nick 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Mioduszewski, Mike 1 ; Montgomery, John 2 ; Peterson, Jordan 1 ; Rensel Jr., John 1
HBP: Peggs, Drake 1
PO: Owings, Zachary 1
Batting:
2B: REARDON, Matt 1 ; LEVINE, Spencer 2
HR: RIVERA, Nick 1
RBI: REARDON, Matt 1 ; COFFERS, Marc 1 ; RIVERA, Nick 3 ; LOVELL, Eli 1 ; GONZALEZ, Julio 2 ; LEVINE, Spencer 3
Base Running:
RUNS: REARDON, Matt 3 ; COFFERS, Marc 1 ; RIVERA, Nick 1 ; FEHRIBACH, Corey 1 ; LOVELL, Eli 1 ; GARCIA, Richie 1 ; MOREY, Gage 2 ; LEVINE, Spencer 2
SB: REARDON, Matt 1 ; MOREY, Gage 1
HBP: FEHRIBACH, Corey 1
