The Golden Panthers got home runs from five players, including Garrett Wittels, but starting pitcher R.J. Fondon got roughed up as FIU fell to the losers’ bracket.
CHAPEL HILL -- FIU’s return to the NCAA regionals Friday cranked along at a pace that brought to mind the word and old cartoon song Powerhouse. Three innings from Saturday’s winners’ bracket, it all turned into Partial Termination: The Fall of the Machines and an 11-7 loss to James Madison.FIU’s hitting machine pounded redoubtable Madison starter Sean Tierney into submission faster than Joe Louis, once called “the ultimate fighting machine,” used to dispatch his Bums of the Month. Up 6-5 in the seventh, the Golden Panthers deployed Jose Velazquez, the submariner reliever they call “The Machine.”
Both machines broke down. As any driver of a BMW, “the ultimate driving machine,” can tell you, when the machine breaks, it’s costly.
FIU first baseman Mike Martinez, Garrett Wittels and Yoandy Barroso each went two for four with a home run. Also homering for FIU were Jabari Henry and Pablo Bermudez. James Madison’s Jake Lowery went three for four with a home run and three RBI.
After battering left hander Tierney with eight hits, three of which were home runs, in 1 2/3 innings, FIU managed only three hits the rest of the way against right hander D.J. Brown. They got around well on Tierney. The hits he gave up to five consecutive batters in the first inning as FIU took a 3-1 lead after the first all went to the opposite field.
“We were looking for pitches up to swing at, because he throws a good changeup and a good slider down,” Wittels said. “So if you chase pitches, he’s going to have success. We were just looking for pitches we could drive.”
But as for Brown, Wittels said: “We just really didn’t make adjustments. He pitched pretty well, but we weren’t making adjustments.”
Meanwhile, FIU starter R.J. Fondon reached 50 pitches by the middle of the second inning and had given up five runs in two innings. But he reached 100 pitches on the last out of the sixth. In the four innings between, catcher Jose Behar threw out Madison’s lone baserunner, team-leading swiper Johnny Bladel, as he tried to steal second.
Fondon’s pitches looked as if they’d lost steam when he gave up consecutive singles to Ian Haynes and Bladel to start the seventh. On came Velasquez and the hits kept coming. In his part of the 25-minute James Madison half of the seventh, Velazquez saw five batters, gave up four hits, walked one and committed a two-base throwing error. He left with Madison up 11-6.
“I just couldn’t hit my spots,” Velazquez. “I was getting ahead of the hitters, I just couldn’t finish it off. They capitalized on that. [The pitches] were staying too much over the middle. That’s what killed me.”
Said FIU coach Turtle Thomas: “Death, taxes, money in the bank. He’s about as sure a bet as you want. They didn’t really hit the ball that great. But everything they hit got by an infielder, just got into the outfield, just blooped over the infielders heads. It wasn’t like he was making bad pitches and getting crushed, they’re hitting doubles and homers off of him, things like that.”
Now FIU has no margin for error. A loss Saturday afternoon against the loser of Friday’s second game, Maine vs. host North Carolina, ends their season. So does a loss Sunday or Monday, the latter possible only if they win out Saturday and Sunday.
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