MIAMI, Fla. (April 3) - FIU completed their sweep of the Florida A&M Baseball team with an 8-4 win over the Rattlers, here Wednesday afternoon at FIU Baseball Stadium.
FAMU finished the contest with seven hits, while FIU tallied 14.
The Rattlers were led by Marlon Gibbs as he finished with a team high three hits, while Zach Sweety also finished with three hits for the Panthers.
Alex Seibold (1-1) got the win for FIU as he pitched four and one-third inning of relief, allowing one hits, and striking out four in the 14 batters he faced, while Christopher Priestly (0-2) received the loss for FAMU as he pitched four innings, allowing nine hits, six earned runs and striking out two in the 25 batters he faced.
FIU grabbed the early lead as Sweety scored on Aramis Garcia single up the middle, followed bya Edwin Rios double to left center scoring Garcia and then Rios would score on a Josh Anderson ground out to the shortstop. T.J. Shantz would score the Panther’s final runs of the inning with a two-run blast to left field, giving FIU a 5-0 lead.
The Panthers added to their lead in bottom of the second inning as Sweety scored his second run of the game on an Anderson single up the middle, making the score 6-0 in favor of FIU.
Hunter Barfield scored the Rattlers first run of the game on passed ball, followed by a Gibb single and a FIU infielder throwing error scoring both Michael Birdsong and Bennie Robinson. Then Gibbs would score on a Ryan Debi single to right field, cutting FIU’s lead to 6-4.
Sweety , who led off the FIU sixth with a double to left field, scored his third run of the game on a Anderson double to right center, give the Panthers a 7-4 lead over the Rattlers.
FIU added to their lead in the bottom of the seventh inning as Sweety doubled to left field, scoring Julius Gaines, making the score, 8-4 in favor of the Panthers.
FAMU will return to action on Saturday, April 6 as they will host Bethune-Cookman in a Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference series with a doubleheader scheduled for Saturday and a single game for Sunday, April 7 with 1 p.m. start set for both days.
