Eagle baseball falls short of NCAA bid

The FGCU baseball team saw its season come to an end following back-to-back losses in the Atlantic Sun Tournament to North Florida and East Tennessee State, respectively.
The Eagles were denied a bid as one of 64 teams in the NCAA College World Series after finishing the season with a record of 38-20 (25-5 A-Sun).

While they were disappointed to not make the ultimate tournament, the Eagles still took pride in their dominant regular season.

"To win this conference league (Atlantic Sun) by 7 ½ games, it takes a great year," head coach Dave Tollett said. "This was our third regular season conference championship and there were so many great moments."

In FGCU's first post-season experience, Tollett found his players to be a little nervous, which explains why the Eagles lost to a team that they had controlled before. 

"We ran into a team (ETSU) that we had beat nine straight times," Tollett said. "It's hard to beat a team 10 times in a row, so the odds were not in our favor. I would have rather played anybody else."

FGVCU entered the final weekend of the regular season with a top 40 RPI ranking, which in most seasons is good enough to qualify for the College World Series.

This was the school's first year of eligibility for post-season play, so the future is still bright, though it will be difficult to duplicate the success of departing starting pitchers Chris Sale and Pete Woodworth and standout Josh Chester.

"Next year is not going to be easy," Tollett said. "Between losing Sale and Woodworth, that's 20 wins right there. Our pitching has to be good to make a run."

Still, FGCU had a great regular season, winning its third consecutive A-Sun Championship. The team faced one of the most difficult out-of-conference schedules in the country, facing top-ranked teams such as Miami, Florida, and Clemson.

Many players had outstanding seasons for the Eagles, highlighted by Sale. The Chicago White Sox selected the Eagles' left-handed ace as the 13th overall pick in the recent Major League Baseball Draft. Sale finished the regular season undefeated at 11-0 with a 2.01 earned run average. He led the country in strikeouts and was named first team All-American.

Junior second baseman Mikel Alvarez had a great season, batting .409 while starting in every game and being named to the A-Sun All-Tournament Team.
 

Junior Zach Maxfield finished second on the team in batting average and had 11 home runs. He is one of many returnees for the Eagles, giving them confidence heading into the off-season.
"

There are still things we don't understand out there, but almost everyone is back next year, so we're excited," Tollett said.