By Mark Saavedra/Staff Writer
Behind a five-run inning in the second, the FIU Panthers throttled the Seton Hall Pirates 10-7 on Saturday night at the FIU Baseball Stadium as they secured the weekend series against their non-conference foe.
The Panthers (8-6) erupted early in the second inning against the Pirates by tacking on five runs on just two hits recorded.
With the win, FIU secured their third consecutive victory after defeating Seton Hall 1-0 on Friday and Florida A&M 8-6 on Wednesday.
Lorenzo Hampton Jr. got the scoring stretch started for FIU by sending a two-run homer into the Miami night sky after Adan Fernandez was walked the previous play.
Later in the frame, John Rodriguez RBI singled to left field to score Javier Valdes. Jose Garcia and Rodriguez would round out the frame by adding an additional two runs.
In the following inning, Garcia launched a two-run round tripper of his own to put the Panthers up 7-2.
Daniel Brown, Juan Teixeira and Austin Shenton would score in the seventh to add three insurance runs for FIU as the Pirates began to threaten late in the contest.
Seton Hall scored in three consecutive innings starting in the fourth as they managed to bring the game with one score, 8-7.
On the other side of the ball, Nick MacDonald struggled early but powered through 4.1 innings as he gave up four earned runs.
MacDonald had his breaking ball throughout the game but had a hard time locating his fastball early on. The Panthers featured five pitchers and collected 11 strikeouts on the night.
Seton Hall catcher Jerry Huntzinger kept the FIU pitchers honest with two RBI hits.
With FIU up 2-0 in the weekend series, the Panthers will aim to complete the sweep against Seton Hall as they host the Pirates for the final game on Sunday at Noon.
The Panthers will play their fifth straight home game with the team continuing their six-contest homestand.
