College baseball: Spencer Levine's homer gives No. 12 FGCU win over No. 20 USF
After a game with plenty of pitching, it was a really long home run that lifted the No. 12 Florida Gulf Coast University baseball team to victory Wednesday night while ending an opponent’s long winning streak.
Spencer Levine belted a home run that went about 375 feet in the sixth to give the Eagles a 2-1 win over No. 20 South Florida in Swanson Stadium, bringing an end to the Bulls’ 19-game win streak.
The two teams combined for only one run and eight hits through the first four innings in this big pitchers’ duel.
FGCU starter Mario Leon, a Gulf Coast High School graduate, struck out five straight batters and retired seven In a row at one point. He pitched six innings, giving up only one run and eight hits. USF started Peter Strzelecki also pitched six, giving up two runs and six hits.
“This was a great effort by Mario,” said FGCU coach Dave Tollett. “The defense had a great game. If we can pitch well and not give up a whole lot of bases on balls, this team can win some games.”
Gage Morey and Alex Brait each had two hits for the Eagles (19-3). Sterling Koerner got his seventh save.
For South Florida (20-2), Kevin Merrell had three hits and also increased his personal record for stolen bases to 15-for-15.
Levine came to the plate with a decidedly simple goal before hitting the dinger.
“I was just going up there to get on base,” Levine said. “The pitch I homered on was a fastball. I was frankly expecting a fastball the whole way. But I was just hoping for anything over the plate I could drive.”
It was the Bulls’ first loss since an early season defeat to Iowa on Feb. 18 in Tampa. The victory follows up a two-game sweep of then-No. 2 Florida and an upset of then-No. 1 Florida State in the past month. The Eagles play Miami on March 29 at Swanson Stadium.
“This is a very special team we have here,” Tollett said. “We believe we can win a lot and that we’re the best team in the state of Florida. Beating Miami (in the past), Florida and Florida State and now this win is huge for the program. We’ve got that goal of getting an at-large bid into the NCAA tournament.”
After a scoreless 1 ½ innings to start the game, the Eagles scored first in the second when Eli Lovell singled and went to second on a walk. After a strikeout and a sacrifice groundout that moved runners to second and third, Matt Reardon singled to left to score Lovell.
That’s all the scoring there was until the Bulls finally pushed across a run in the sixth.
Merrell started the inning with a single, went to second on an infield throwing error and to third on a base hit by Coco Montes. Designated hitter Luke Borders then nailed a line drive that was caught near first base by Nick Rivera, who then stepped on the bag to easily double off Montes. Then with two outs, Joe Genord singled to center to score Merrell and make it a 1-1 game.
Levine then hit his homer in the bottom of the sixth.
FGCU hosts Jackson State for a three-game set starting Friday.