MIAMI, May. 20, 2016- Friday night junior Zack Soria scored the winning run on a wild pitch by Nick Sandlin in the bottom of the tenth inning to defeat the nationally ranked University of Southern Mississippi 6-5. With the win the Panthers clinched a berth to the Conference USA tournament next Wednesday, May. 25, 2016 in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
“It’s win or go home”, said Soria. “We’re fighting to get into the tournament. We don’t want to play summer ball yet; we want to play as long as we can.”
Before Soria scored USM’s pitcher Sandlin intentionally walked two FIU players, Zach Files, and Irving Lopez. Sandlin was in the process of walking a third player, Rey Perez, when he threw a wild pitch that went passed his catcher Chuckie Robinson, and consequentially allowed Soria on third base to take home plate, and create FIU’s ticket to the C-USA tournament.
“Zack Soria, you can’t say enough good things about him”, said Turtle Thomas FIU Baseball’s Head Coach. “If we didn’t foul out a couple of balls he was going to steal about 3 bases. He got some hits, he threw a guy out who just flies, with the quickest footwork you have ever seen. He has the quickest feet blocking pitches behind the plate. If there was a game ball he would get two of them.”
By the bottom of the fifth inning FIU lead the Golden Eagles 4-0. In the fourth inning Irving Lopez picked up a RBI bringing Soria home, in the bottom of the fifth after a wild pitch by USM’s Jake Winston, Kenny Meimerstorf picked up a run, and Nick Day hit a single that brought both Jack Schaaf, and Soria home. After the fifth inning the Panthers let up and allowed Southern Miss to score a total of five runs from the sixth to eighth inning (3 in the 6th, 1in the 7th, and 1 in the 8th).
In the bottom of the eighth inning FIU’s Lopez hit a dinger right field to put the game in extra innings.
At the end of the game Lopez said, “We play for each other, it’s been a long journey–the whole fall—the whole spring. We didn’t want to go home, we want to stay together, we want to keep playing.”
There were several ways the Panthers could have clinched a spot in the C-USA tournament such as a UAB loss to Charlotte, or a WKU loss to FAU. However, in front of a crowd of 252 people the Panthers who have had a difficult season decided their own fate Friday night. FIU will play USM again today at 6:30 pm, and on Saturday, May.21, 2016 at 11am. If FIU wins one more game against Southern Miss, they will clinch the seventh seed in the C-USA tournament.