Kirsch homers late to secure home opener against Brown

FIU beat the Brown Bears in Friday’s home opener 6-5 in a match where the Panther that was responsible for the win never even stepped on the field. Before the sixth inning, Junior Adam Kirsch had not recorded a hit all night. He was 0-for-3 with a sac fly and had already committed an error on the field.He went back into the dugout and repeatedly asked his teammates, “What’s wrong with my swing?”It was not until sophomore right-hander Michael Ellis told him the timing of his left foot was off that Kirsch returned to the plate in the bottom of the seventh inning.

The crowd exploded as he turned on a first pitch fastball he saw from Brown pitcher Will Marcal and launched it more than 400 feet from home plate for the decisive go-ahead home run.

“It was emotional when he hit that home run to dead centerfield,” said senior Mike Martinez.

It was a muggy night where the lead swung back and forth thanks in part to errors, walks, and clutch hits from both FIU (2-5) and Brown (0-1).

If Kirsch played the biggest role in Friday’s win, then Martinez took second place without question. Martinez recorded two hits, two walks (one intentional) and two RBIs and was responsible for putting his team on the board early on in the game.

FIU’s starter, redshirt junior Mason McVay threw 4 1/3 innings, allowed six hits, two earned runs, two walks and five strikeouts. The two walks were an improvement from his last start where he walked five batters.

In the first inning, McVay struggled against Brown allowing three hits and a walk. Brown catcher Wes Van Boom fought off eight pitches before he pushed across an RBI single.

Freshman Julius Gaines then botched a routine play with the bases loaded for his fifth error on the season to allow a second run to come in for Brown.

FIU managed to cut the lead in half with two outs in the bottom of the first as junior Nathan Burns walked and ended up scoring from first on a long line drive from Martinez.

The Panthers committed their second error in just as many innings when first baseman Kirsch overthrew the ball to second base on a pick off attempt and allowed the runner to move up third base. Matt DeRenzi capitalized on the mistake and drove in the runner to make it 3-1.

At this point, McVay was falling into the same pattern that forced him out of the game just a week earlier.

“My mechanics were too fast,” McVay said. “It took me about 60-65 pitches to settle in.”

McVay then retired six of the next seven batters he faced in the third and fourth inning, but not before Martinez drove in his second run of the game in the bottom of the third inning to make it 3-2.

FIU took the lead for the first time when junior T.J Shantz ripped a bases-loaded double in the fourth inning to give his team a 4-3 lead.

Kirsch then added a sacrifice fly in the fifth to pad the lead.

Right-hander Albert Cardenas relieved McVay but ran into trouble in the seventh inning.

The pace of the game slowed dramatically as Cardenas loaded the bases with no outs. He then walked in a runner to make it 5-4, and balked to allow Brown to tie the game.

The top half of the seventh inning last 30 minutes, but it took Kirsch three seconds to breathe life back into FIU Baseball Stadium with his solo home run to give his team a 6-5 lead.

Freshman right-hander John Costa entered the game for FIU and blew away all five batters he faced with strikeouts, hitting 95 mph at one point followed by junior Michael Gomez earning the save in the ninth.

The win snapped the two-year home opener losing streak FIU had and relieved the players from the pressure of possibly falling to 1-6.

“The more games you win, the more confidence your team gets,” said head coach Turtle Thomas.