FORT MYERS, Florida. – In a back-and-forth, the FGCU baseball team came up short against Jacksonville, losing 9-7, Friday night at Swanson Stadium. It’s ASUN’s first loss of the season for the Eagles as they drop to 3-1 and 16-6 overall while the Dolphins improve to 12-8 and 1-3 in conference.

“Tonight was not our best performance,” the head coach said. Dave Tollet. “We got sloppy on the field and left too many runners and when you do that against a good team like Jacksonville, it’s going to be tough to win games. We’ll have to regroup and come back better tomorrow.”

Second year ian farrow (Merritt Island, Fla./Merritt Island HS) reached base five times as he went 3-for-3 with two walks, two RBIs and a run scored. First-year student Harrison Povey (Indian Rocks Beach, Fla./Largo HS) and Junior alexander rodriguez (Cidra, Puerto Rico/Montverde Academy/Eastern Florida State) each added two hits and an RBI.

On the mound, second year Jason Woodward (Titusville, Fla./Titusville HS) wasn’t having his best, but after giving up three runs in the first two innings, he settled in and finished with three straight scoreless innings while striking out four.

The Dolphins took an early lead, scoring two in the first as they took advantage of a few steps and an error from Eagle, but FGCU came right back in the bottom of the first, taking advantage of two errors themselves JU while earning an RBI. junior triple Alejandro Figueredo (Sucre, Venezuela/West Oaks HS/Seminole State) and an RBI single from Povey.

After Jacksonville scored a run in the top of the second, the game remained tied until the fifth when junior Luis Rodriguez (Guarenas, Venezuela/Miami Christian HS/Santa Fe College/Dyersburg State) tripled and scored on wild pitch. Farrow then added a few more runs in the sixth with a two-run brace as the Eagles took a 6-3 lead after six innings.

The lead didn’t last long, however, as the Dolphins came back with three runs in the seventh to tie the game.

The Eagles put two runners in each of the next two innings, but couldn’t find the big hit to regain the lead.

With the game still tied heading for ninth, the Dolphins finally got the big hit both teams were looking for as Jonah Diaz hit a base-laden two-run single. JU added a third point on an error before handing the ball to closest Tyler Vogel.

After striking out the first batter, Vogel lost his command a bit as he walked the next batter over four pitches before throwing a wild pitch. alexander rodriguez followed by a ground rule double to drive in a run and bring the run even to the plate, but Vogel induced two flyouts to right field to end the game and secure the Dolphins victory.

The Eagles will be looking to bounce back tomorrow afternoon when the two teams meet on the field for Game 2 at 2 p.m.

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TOLLET COACH

FGCU Coach Dave Tollet currently holds an overall record of 652-391-3 (.623) and an ASUN record of 214-116 (.647). He is the only head coach in program history and led the program to its first trip to the NCAA Tournament in 2017. He is a five-time ASUN Coach of the Year and has guided the Green and Blue to five season championships regular ASUN tournament and an ASUN tournament championship. His team has been ranked multiple times nationally, including 9th in the nation in 2017, and has coached 58 all-conference picks, 33 draft picks, three current major leaguers, 13 current minor leaguers, four ASUN pitchers of the Year, four All-Americans, three ASUN Players of the Year, one Freshman National Player of the Year, one National Player of the Year and a seven-time MLB All-Star.



EAGLE CAMPAIGN

IT NEEDS A TEAM to achieve our most recent goal – a $10 million campaign to address the needs of student-athletes for continued academic success, life skills, mental health, nutrition, strength and conditioning as well as needs of the department for expansion and improvement of facilities as well as mentoring and leadership training for coaches and staff. The name embodies our mission and the goal of the EAGLE – Eagle Athletics Generating Lifetime Excellence campaign. Join our team and commit your donation today to help the Eagles of tomorrow!



#FEEDFGCU

FGCU Athletics sponsors events in November and April to benefit the FGCU Campus Food Pantry (www.fgcu.edu/foodpantry) and the Harry Chapin Food Bank (www.harrychapinfoodbank.org), FGCU Athletics’ charities of choice. For more information, including how to contribute, please visit www.fgcu.edu/foodpantry and use the hashtag #FeedFGCU to help raise awareness.

ABOUT THE FGCU
FGCU teams have combined to win an incredible 89 conference regular season and tournament titles in just 14+ seasons at the Division I level. Additionally, in just 10 seasons of DI playoff eligibility, the Eagles have brought together 43 teams or individuals competing in NCAA championships. Eight FGCU programs ranked in the top 25 nationally in their respective sports, including women’s basketball (#20, 2021-22), beach volleyball (#20, 2022) and men’s soccer (2018, 2019) and women’s football. (2018) as three of the most recent. In 2016-17, the Vert et Bleu posted the department’s best sixth place finish in the DI-AAA Learfield Directors’ Cup and top 100 nationally, ahead of several Power-5 and FBS institutions. In 2018-19, the Eagles had an ASUN and Florida State’s top seven teams won the NCAA Public Recognition Award for their rate of academic progression in their sport. FGCU also collectively achieved a record 3.50 classroom GPA in the fall 2020 semester and outperformed the general undergraduate college population for 25 consecutive semesters. The past five semesters (Fall 2019 – Fall 2021) have each seen another milestone reached as all 15 programs achieved a Team GPA of 3.0 or higher in each. The Eagles also served an all-time high of 7,200 volunteer hours in 2017 – being recognized as one of two finalists for the inaugural NACDA Community Service Award presented by the Fiesta Bowl.