High-powered offense lifts FIU baseball to conference title, NCAA Regionals

By Joel Delgado ’12 MS ’17 

Rain and lightning kept pushing back the first pitch of the Conference USA championship game between FIU baseball and the University of Alabama-Birmingham Blazers on May 24.

But once the rain stopped and the lightning passed, the red-hot Panthers (29-29) jumped out to an early lead and blasted three home runs in an 8-2 victory over the No. 6 seed Blazers (33-25) to win the C-USA championship and earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Regionals, their first invitation since 2011.

The Panthers are the first No. 8 seed to ever win the C-USA championship tournament. The last time FIU claimed a conference title was in 2010 as a member of the Sun Belt Conference.

“Sometimes when you’re waiting that long in a delay you lose your edge, but our guys knew what they were playing for and they came out swinging,” said Head Coach Turtle Thomas in a phone interview.

After a 1-hour and 40-minute rain delay, the game between two teams few expected to face off in the conference championship game finally got underway at Pete Taylor Park on the campus of host Southern Miss.

But in the bottom of the first, after the Panthers led off the inning with back-to-back singles, storm clouds rolled in again and forced both teams back into their respective dugouts for another delay — this one lasting an hour and three minutes.

FIU baseball wins their first ever Conference USA championship and earns a trip to the NCAA Regionals for the first time since 2011.

Once the game resumed, the Panthers picked up where they left off and scored four runs in the first inning to take a lead they would never relinquish. Austin Rodriguez, who hit a grand slam a day earlier in the semifinals, hit a two-out single to drive in runners on second and third base to make it a 4-0 game.

With two outs in the bottom half of the third inning, FIU third baseman Josh Anderson — who was named the tournament MVP — took a  fastball left over the plate by Blazers starter James Naile and blasted it off the left field foul pole for a solo home run.

Shortstop Julius Gaines ended Naile’s outing and sent the Blazers looking to their bullpen for relief in the fifth inning, leading off with a solo home run that went off the top of the scoreboard in left-center field to make it 6-0 game.

After giving up a run in the top of the sixth, the Panthers got that run right back in bottom half of the inning with Rodriguez hitting a home run of his own that just cleared the left field wall and Gaines adding an RBI single to give the Panthers a seven-run lead, their largest of the afternoon.

Rodriguez went 2-for-3 with three runs batted in while Gaines finished the day 3-for-4 with two RBI and scored twice in the win.

While the FIU lineup took care of business at the plate, Panthers starter Chris Mourelle pitched five scoreless innings before giving up the first UAB run in the top of the sixth inning and another in the seventh. But the Panthers’ ace struck out one batter in seven innings of work to earn his seventh win of the season.

For more information on the Conference USA baseball championship tournament, click here.