FGCU baseball season comes to close

FORT MYERS, Fla. – The FGCU baseball team (30-26-1, 11-9 A-Sun) had its 2015 season come to a close on Saturday afternoon when it fell to top-seeded North Florida (45-15, 16-5 A-Sun) by a score of 8-2. The game began at 11:03 a.m. and would be delayed for five hours and 26 minutes with no outs in the top of the seventh due to lightning being present in the area. Play resumed at 6:30 p.m. and the Eagles threatened but ultimately were unable to make a comeback as the final three frames took less than an hour.

For the second-consecutive season the Eagles were one of just three teams left playing for a championship and ended in the same position as they did a year ago. FGCU played four games this weekend and were affected by approximately 13 hours-worth of various weather delays. Despite the adverse conditions the Eagles went 2-2, highlighted by stellar starting pitching. Three of four starters lasted at least seven innings on the hill and only one gave up more than two runs. At the plate the Eagles hit .242 as a team with 31 hits that resulted in 12 runs on the board but were undone by 43 runners left of base over the four-game span.

“It was a long week,” head coach Dave Tollett said after the defeat. “It felt like our games were always affected by lightning or a rain delay so it just seemed like it was a long week and we just ran out of gas. We may have run out of arms too but it is what it is. They played their butts off all week and we were right in it at the very end but couldn’t come up with that extra hit. But that’s baseball.”

Freshman lefty Josh Dye (Deland, Fla./Deland HS) made his seventh start of his debut campaign and tossed 5.1 innings, allowing all four runs he would be responsible for over the first two frames. He settled in and handled the potent UNF offense over the next 3.1 innings. He gave way to Garrett Anderson (Arcadia, Fla./DeSoto HS) who gave up four more runs over 1.0 innings on the hill and Sterling Koerner (Fort Pierce, Fla./John Carrol HS) recorded the final five outs for the Green and Blue.

At the dish on Saturday only Tyler Selesky (Estero, Fla./Estero HS) would register multiple hits and also scored once. He finishes the 2015 season with career-best numbers in nearly every offensive statistical category. Most notably the junior raised his average to .330 and drove in a career-best 37 runs while being one of just two Eagles start all 57 games this season. Jake Noll (Punta Gorda, Fla./Charlotte HS) went 1-4 at the plate on Saturday with an RBI and closed the season with 79 hits and a .348 average. FGCU had six hits in all opposite UNF but Nick Rivera (Cape Coral, Fla./Bishop Verot HS) was held hitless in game. He finishes four RBI short of the single-season record but still became just the second player in program history to drive in 70 in a season.

Matt Reardon (Palm City, Fla./Martin County) led of the game for FGCU with a single to right and with Selesky at the plate there was a good chance he would be sacrificed into scoring position but UNF starter Tyler Moore had other ideas as he picked off Reardon for the first out. Selesky would line out and Rivera went down on strikes to end the once promising inning. The Ospreys picked up back-to-back hits to lead off the bottom half and a ground ball that resulted in a double play drove in the first run of the ball game. Dye retired the next batter he faced to limit the damage to just one run.

In the top of the second, with one out after Noll’s would-be single was stolen by a diving Donnie Dewees catch in right, Zach Spivey (Ormond Beach, Fla./Spruce Creek HS) singled to center but another great defensive play would end the inning. Colton Bottomley (Parkland, Fla./Marjory Stoneman Douglas HS) slashed a laser at UNF third baseman Trent Higginbothem who would snow-cone catch the ball and fire to first to double off Spivey who had drifted too far off the bag.

In the bottom half of the second the FGCU lefty retired the first two hitters with just three pitches but back-to-back singles brought Garrick Ferguson to the dish. Dye would get two strikes on Ferguson but a line drive down the line in right touched just fair and resulted in a two-RBI triple to push UNF ahead 3-0. The next batter hit a liner that glanced off of Dye and rolled toward first. Dye hustled over and flipped the ball to Rivera covering but not in time to get the speedy runner, scoring Ferguson from third and making it a four-run lead.

Both pitchers would settle in and cruise through the next three frames until the Eagles came to bat in the top of the sixth. Selesky continued his big day with another single to left to lead off and after Rivera worked a 2-0 count the Ospreys opted to remove Tyler Moore in favor of Tyler DuPont who eventually walked the Eagle first baseman. Noll stepped in a snuck a single past the diving glove of the UNF shortstop to drive in the first FGCU run of the afternoon and Spivey laid down a bunt to sacrifice the two remaining runners into scoring position. The Opsreys went to the bullpen again, this time bringing in Alex Smith to face Colton Bottomley. A ground ball scored Rivera from third but Noll would get hung up in a pickle and was eventually retired as Bottomley hustled to second on the play. A fly out would end the inning but the lead had been cut in half, 4-2.

In the top of the seventh Adam Eggnatz (Tampa, Fla./Middle Georgia College) worked a four-pitch walk as the leadoff man, bringing Bryan Voelkl (Bradenton, Fla./SCOF) to the plate. The senior catcher twice attempted to sacrifice Eggnatz into scoring position but failed both times by fouling the ball of. He then worked the count full before play was halted due to lightning strikes in the area of the field. When play resumed Voelkl needed to see just one pitch as he singled to right center to put two on with no outs and the Eagles trailing by just two. Reardon stepped in and sacrificed both runners into scoring position but Selesky struck out on three pitches and Rivera swung at the first pitch he saw and grounded out to end the threat.

Garrett Anderson (Arcadia, Fla./DeSoto HS), who threw just a couple pitches before the delay, stayed in the game and gave up a leadoff infield single to Patrick Ervin. A sacrifice bunt put the runner on second for Kyle Brooks who doubled down the line in left, driving in Ervin and pushing UNF ahead 5-2. The Eagles opted to intentionally walk A-Sun Player of the Year Donnie Dewees but with Trent Higginbothem at the plate, Brooks stole third cleanly then it was Dewees attempting to take second when Voelkl airmailed the throw into center field, allowing Brooks to score and Dewees to move up to third. Koerner took over the mound but gave back-to-back singles as well, resulting in two more runs before a double play ended the inning, but not before UNF took an 8-2 lead. The next six batters for FGCU would be retired by UNF pitching to end the game. The Eagles close the season with a 30-25-1 record and played to an 11-9 mark in the A-Sun.