Townsend's Grand Slam Lifts Baseball Past New Orleans
Tyler Townsend hit a go-ahead grand slam in the bottom of the seventh as the Golden Panthers bounced back from Friday night’s loss to drop the New Orleans Privateers by the score of 10-5.
Like they did the previous night, FIU jumped on top early, scoring two in the bottom of the second. Mike Martinez was hit by a pitch and Raiko Alfonso followed with a single through the right side. After both runners advanced on a bunt by Junior Arrojo, Pablo Bermudez poked a single into right field to drive in both runners and five FIU the early lead.
Three consecutive singles by Steven Stropp, Tim Jobe and Mike Martinez led off the bottom of the third and pushed FIU’s lead to 3-0. Alfonso then drove in FIU’s fourth run on a sacrifice fly to center field.
Much like Scott Rembisz did on Friday night, FIU starter Tom Ebert was cruising along through the first four innings. That was until the Privateers put together five consecutive singles to begin the top of the fifth. The five knocks, along with an RBI groundout made the score 4-3. After Ebert recorded two outs, a ground ball took a wicked hop on Mollica, allowing two more runs to score, giving UNO a 5-4 lead.
New Orlean’s lead was short-lived as FIU responded with one run in the bottom of the fifth to tie the score at five. Martinez led of with a walk and Greg Waddell singled to right. Bermudez then loaded the bases by drawing a walk. Mollica bounced into what looked to be an inning-ending fielder’s choice. However, Bermudez was called safe at second, allowing the tying run to come home.
A Tyler Townsend grand slam gave FIU a 9-5 lead in the bottom of the seventh. Waddell led off with a single to right and Arrojo followed with one of his own to put two on. The runners moved to second and third on a groundout by Bermudez. The Privateers then decided to intentionally walk Mollica, who had three hits on the game going into the at-bat, to get to Townsend, who was 0-2 with a couple of strikeouts. The decision backfired immediately as Townsend crushed the first pitch he saw and sent it soaring into the nature preserve over the centerfield wall. A couple of batters later Tim Jobe hit a moonshot over the left field fence to make the score 10-5.
Mason McVay and Eric Berkowitz combined to throw 1.1 scoreless innings to seal the win for the Golden Panthers.
The win moves FIU’s record to 23-13 and 10-7 in the Sun Belt. UNO is now 14-23 with a 5-12 conference mark. Tom Ebert got the win for FIU, he is now 4-2. The junior righty tossed 7.2 innings, striking out six batters and giving up five earned runs. Eight of the nine hits Ebert gave up, and all the runs, came in the fifth inning. Jake Henderson was tagged with the loss for the Privateers.
Gregg Waddell finished the game 3-4 with a double, a run scored and two stolen bases. Mike Martinez was 2-4 with two runs scored and one driven in.
FIU will go for the series win on Sunday as the three-game set concludes with a Noon matchup.