Nick Deckert picked up his first win of the season by tossing 5.1 scoreless innings.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Thanks in large part to Nick Deckert's best outing of the season on the mound, FGCU (17-16-1, 4-2 A-Sun) rolled to a 5-0 victory against No. 8 Florida State (26-9, 11-4 ACC) on the road on Wednesday, giving FGCU its second win against a top 15 opponent this season. The Eagles outhit the Seminoles 10-7 and Nick Rivera smoked his sixth long ball of the season to highlight the offense.
FGCU defeated No. 13 Miami, 8-1, on the road as well earlier this season and have now defeated Florida State and Miami in the same season for the second time in program history. The feat was last accomplished in 2012 when the Eagles defeated No. 2 Florida State, 5-1, and No. 6 Miami, 4-2. The Eagles now have 13 wins against nationally-ranked opponents since joining Division I and are now 4-8 this season against teams that are either ranked or receiving votes in the national polls.
Deckert tossed 5.1 scoreless, giving up just three hits and striking out four.
"This is a huge win for us," head coach Dave Tollett said. "Deckert really pitched well and the guys really got behind him. We came up with big hits and basically it all just came together tonight. I'm proud of our guys because it's never easy to beat a team like that. We've beaten two top 15 teams this year and that says a lot about what kind of team we can be when we're at our best. Hopefully we can ride this feeling through the rest of conference play."
Rivera set the tone offensively for FGCU as the junior went 1-3 with a homerun, two RBI and a pair of runs scored. Hitting behind Rivera was Jake Noll who went 2-4 to extend his hitting streak to 13 games, the fourth such streak of his career and second longest behind his 14-game stretch earlier this season. Zach Spivey also collected two hits while Brady Anderson went 1-4, settling his team-leading batting average at .412.
