Marshall University Athletics
Marshall University
No. 30 Florida International
Marshall Fights but Falls to No. 30 FIU
3/21/2014 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 21, 2014
MIAMI--Marshall baseball faced first-time opponent No. 30 FIU Friday under the lights and the Panthers emerged with a 3-1 victory in the first of a three-game series between the two teams.
Starter Josh King (Troup, Ga.) threw 5.1 innings, allowing two runs (one earned) off seven hits and two walks.
Junior Andrew Dundon (Lincoln Park, N.J.) and sophomore Chase Vogelbach (Ft. Myers, Fla.) provided the bats for the Herd offense, going 2-for-3 and 3-for-4 respectively. Vogelbach hit a double and recorded his ninth RBI of the season.
FIU scored first, plating a run off two singles and a Marshall throwing error in the 2nd. The Panthers added to the lead in the 3rd after FIU's Aramis Garcia reached on a walk and scored as a result of two passed balls.
With a 2-0 lead, Marshall responded in the 6th when third baseman John Beary (Apopka, Fla.) reached on a single and moved to second after a Dundon walk. Beary then scored on an RBI single from Vogelbach.
The Marshall bullpen provided clutch pitching in the bottom of the 6th, after King put two on with one out. Lefty Caleb Ross (Barboursville, W.Va.) entered to get left-handed Panther Tyler Hibbert, and was then relieved by righty Clint Wilson (Cedar Park, Texas), who got the Herd out of the jam with a swinging strikeout.
The score remained at 2-1 until the bottom of the 8th, when outfielder Roche Woodard cranked a ball over the left field fence to increase the Panthers' lead to 3-1.
Marshall could not muster additional runs in the 9th, and fell to its first nationally-ranked opponent 3-1.
The Herd returns to action Saturday at 4 p.m. for game two of the series.
