Wednesday, March 31, 2010

STILLWATER, Okla. - Zach Maxfield and Austin Gaines combined for seven RBI to lead the FGCU baseball team to a 10-7 victory over Oklahoma State on Wednesday night in Stillwater, Okla.

The Eagles improve to 15-9 on the season, while OSU drops to 15-7.

Jack Wagoner (Berlin, Conn.) earned the win for the Eagles. Wagoner (1-1) came in and threw one inning in relief. Richie Erath (West Palm Beach, Fla.) earned his first save of the season after throwing one inning and striking out two batters.

Patrick Nathanson (Maitland, Fla.) received his six start of the season. Nathanson (2-1) earned the no decision after throwing 5.2 innings and allowed five runs (five earned) on six hits, while striking out six Cowboys.

Trevor Walch received the loss for Oklahoma State. Walch (0-1) threw 2.1 innings, gave up three runs (three earned) on three hits.

Once again, FGCU took an early lead, scoring three runs in the first inning. Stephen Wickens (Whitby, Ontario) led off the inning with a double down the right field line. Later in the inning Mikel Alvarez (West Palm Beach, Fla.) reached on a walk and was followed by back-to-back singles by Tim Roberson (West Palm Beach, Fla.) and Zach Maxfield (North Port, Fla.). Maxfield’s single brought in Wickens and Alvarez. Roberson later scored on a groundout by Austin Gaines (Dunedin, Fla.) to give the Eagles an early 3-0 lead.

Nathanson threw three scoreless innings until Oklahoma State got on the board in the fourth inning. A home run to right field by Mark Ginther cut the Eagles lead down to 3-1.

Two innings later, the Cowboys used a four-run inning to take the lead. Tom Belza led off the Cowboys sixth inning with a single to centerfield. After Nathanson retired the next Oklahoma State batter, Nico Rosthenhaus sent an RBI triple to the right center gap and later scored on a pass ball to even the score at three. Nathanson fanned the next hitter, but the Cowboys used a single by Luis Uribe, an RBI double by Kevin Chambers and an RBI single by Dusty Harvard to take the 5-3 lead.