FORT MYERS, Fla. – The University of Evansville baseball team rolled into Swanson Stadium winners of four straight, and Florida Gulf Coast University put an end to to the streak as the Purple Aces fell 10-0.

UE (5-6) sent out junior starting pitcher Austin Allinger to face the Eagles (11-2), and quickly fell behind as Mark Coffers stroked a double to lead off the bottom of the first and would eventually score the icebreaker on a fielder’s choice.

Allinger would get in more trouble in the second frame, as Eric Gonzalez tagged him for a 2-run shot, pushing the Florida Gulf Coast lead to 3-0.

Gonzalez would strike again in the bottom of the 4th, driving in another Eagles tally, making it 4-0 FCGU. Florida Gulf Coast would add to the pad later in the inning as an error by sophomore shortstop Craig Shepherd allowed Alex Brait to cross home plate with an unearned run. Richie Garcia would follow that up with a two-run double to the gap in right-center, chasing Allinger from the game. The junior hurler went 3 2/3 innings giving seven runs, four earned, while striking out four.

Hunter Porterfield would come out of the bullpen to try to put out the fire, but the Eagles weren’t finished in the fourth frame. Eli Lovell singled in a pair, pushing the Florida Gulf Coast advantage to 9-0.

“We couldn’t minimize the big inning”, said University of Evansville head coach Wes Carroll. They hung a six-spot on us in the fourth inning, a couple of them unearned runs. Any time you give up a big inning like that versus a quality starter, our offense couldn’t come out of the hole for us.”

The Aces and Eagles will square off again tomorrow back FGCU’s Swanson Stadium, with UE sending out junior southpaw Alex Weigand, while Florida Gulf Coast counters with junior lefty Josh Dye.

“We feel like we have a good idea how to work through their lineup now, going into tomorrow”, said Carroll. “The good thing is they can’t carry over any of those runs, and I know our guys are going to come to the yard expecting to win and compete at a very high level.”

First pitch has been moved up to 11 a.m. Central Time. Sunday’s game has also been moved up to 9:30 a.m. Central Time in anticipation of inclement weather.

Oakland University scored three runs in the first two innings before adding three more to take a 6-1 win over the University of Evansville softball team in the second game of the Racer Classic.

Evansville (6-14) notched five hits on the day as Elyse Hickey went 2-for-3 while Eryn Gould, Lindsay Renneisen and Alex Latoria added one hit apiece.

Pacing the Golden Grizzlies was Cammie Brummitt who went 3-4 with four RBI and a run scored.  Rachel Zerona went 2-3 and scored twice.

In the first, OU plated the first run of the game before adding two more in the second.  Three in the sixth capped off their scoring with two coming home on a Brummitt single.

Evansville got on the board in the bottom of the seventh on an RBI single by Latoria.  Hickey doubled with one out before scoring on Latoria’s base knock.

Haley Zemmer got the win for Oakland, going the distance while allowing five UE hits and one earned run.  Jaime Nurrenbern got the start for Evansville, tossing twp innings and giving up three runs, two of which were earned.  Ashleigh Downing gave up three unearned runs in four frames of work before Emily Lockhart pitched a scoreless seventh.

Tomorrow, the Aces open the day at 4:30 p.m. against Kent State before playing a rematch against Oakland at 7 p.m.