Florida Atlantic eliminated Florida International

TROY — Florida Atlantic’s Jeremy Griffiths continued to pound Florida International pitching on Thursday.

Griffiths went 3-for-5 with a two-run homer, scored three runs and drove in five to help the Owls beat FIU 16-6 in eight innings and eliminate them from the Sun Belt Conference Tournament.

Griffiths raised his batting average 43 points in the last seven games of the regular season, including a three-game series against the Golden Panthers in which hit three of his five home runs. Combined against FIU, he went 11-for-20, scored seven runs, drove in 12 and hit four home runs in four games.

“I just caught on fire right when we went into the FIU series,” the senior right fielder said. “I found it in batting practice and I knew when I had it. For the first time during the season I feel like my swing is where it needs to be to help my team the best way I can.”

He helped the Owls plenty on Thursday at Riddle-Pace Field. He singled and drove in a run in the first, hit a two-run homer over the right-field wall in the second, doubled home a run and later scored in a six-run fourth inning that broke the game open, reached on an error and scored in the fifth and hit a sacrifice fly in the sixth.

FAU starter Mike Gipson (4-5), who pitched eight innings before the Owls won by 10-run rule, welcomed the help.

“It’s pretty easy to pitch when your team gives you a lead like that,” Gipson said. “I thought they’d be taking a lot of strikes, but they were hacking. I just kept throwing strikes. It worked out.”

“That was huge,” Owls coach John McCormack said of Gipson’s complete game. “The one thing that had hampered Mike earlier in the year was getting in
trouble with walks, and big innings blew him out.”

Gipson had a shaky second inning. He hit three batters and surrendered a two-out, two-run single to Pablo Bermudez.

But from there he gave up four solo home runs.

“Solo shots don’t hurt you as much as the three-run jobs,” McCormack said.

And he had breathing room, courtesy of a six-run fourth inning that extended a 4-3 lead to 10-3. Travis Ozga hit a two-run triple, and Nick DelGuidice hit a two-
run homer.

“It gave us some breathing room and really put their back against the wall,” McCormack said. “It was enjoyable to watch our guys swing the bat and have good
at bats.”

FAU’s Sean Bukovich went 3-for-4 with a two-run single in the fifth. Ozga ended the game with a two-run homer with one out in the bottom of the eighth inning.

FIU got solo home runs by Ryan Mollica in the third, back-to-back shots by Raiko Alfonso and Bermudez in the seventh and by Steven Stropp in the eighth.

FAU (30-25), seeded eighth, will play today at 9 a.m. againstMiddle Tennessee in another elimination game.

FIU ends its season at 34-23 after it finished fourth in the league.

“We had a good, solid year,” FIU coach Turtle Thomas said. “We were ninth last year and came in fourth (this year). We’ve got 11 freshmen that are good and going to get better. Our guys battled, competed. They didn’t give up today.”