FIU baseball falls to Hurricanes in Coral Gables Regional opener, will face ECU Saturday

FIU catcher Zack Soria at the plate against the Miami Hurricanes in the Coral Gables Regional May 29.

By Joel Delgado ’12 MS ’17 

A rocky start was too much for FIU baseball to overcome in a 6-2 loss to the University of Miami Hurricanes in the first round of the Coral Gables Regional on Friday night.

A combination of errors and early miscues hurt the Panthers, surrendering four runs in the first inning and another two runs in the second to fall into an early 6-0 hole that they failed to climb out of.

FIU starter Andres Nunez settled down after rough opening, pitching four-plus scoreless innings after the first two innings and striking out four Hurricane hitters in the process. Reliever Charles Cormier came into the game and pitched 1.2 scoreless innings for the Panthers.

But against Hurricanes starter Andrew Sanchez, the Panthers failed to gain traction.

“One of our goals was to try to start fast — pitching and hitting wise. We just didn’t do that,” FIU Head Coach Turtle Thomas said in the post-game press conference. “We couldn’t bunch our hits together.”

Down 6-0 in the eighth inning, the Panthers had their best opportunity to mount a late rally after loading the bases with no outs. But FIU managed to pick up just two runs on back-to-back infield groundouts and nothing more.

A sold-out crowd of 4,817 fans was on hand for the game, which rekindled a local rivalry that lay dormant since 2008. A large chunk of the fans present was clad in blue and gold, which made for a festive baseball experience between two local collegiate fan bases.

“We knew it was going to be a great atmosphere with both teams being from Miami and the history behind it,” said FIU shortstop Julius Gaines. “It was a high-energy atmosphere.”

FIU returns to action Saturday against the East Carolina Pirates, who lost to Columbia earlier in the day, in a must-win game for both teams at Alex Rodriguez Park. First pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m.

The winner survives to play on Sunday against the losing team from Saturday night’s UM vs. Columbia game.

For ticket information log onto www.hurricanesports.com, call 305-284-2263 or email canestix@miami.edu.