FORT MYERS, Fla. – The Saint Joseph's baseball team twice cut a large deficit down to a single run, but Florida Gulf Coast ultimately hung on for an 11-9 win at Swanson Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

HOW IT HAPPENED
• Florida Gulf Coast (8-7) stormed out to an early lead, plating six runs in the bottom of the second inning.

• Saint Joseph's (5-8) began to claw back in the top of the fourth inning.  Consecutive singles by Brendan Hueth and Nate Thomas brought up Tim Cavanaugh, whose single scored Hueth and got the Hawks on the board.

• James McConnon and Liam Bendo followed by drawing consecutive four-pitch walks to force in a run and chase FGCU starter Ronaldo Gallo.  Two batters later, a Matt Cuppari sacrifice fly made it a 6-3 game.

• The Hawks got within one in the fifth as doubles by Brian Markoski and Hueth made it 6-4 before Bendo drew another bases-loaded walk to bring in another run.

• The Eagles would rebuild the margin to 10-5, scoring three in the bottom half of the fifth and one in the seventh.

• SJU got right back into the game in the eighth, however, as McConnon and Bendo started the inning with consecutive doubles to cut the deficit to 10-6.  A wild pitch later brought home Bendo before Hueth hit a two-out, two-run single to bring the Hawks back within a run at 10-9.

• That would be it for the visitors, however, as FGCU tacked on a run in the bottom of the frame and then closed it out with a 1-2-3 ninth inning.

BEHIND THE BOX SCORE
• Tyler Shuck earned the win in an inning and a third of relief, while Lucas Rollins took the loss for SJU.  Hunter McGarry notched his second save of the series and third of the season for the Eagles.

• Hueth went 3-for-5 with three RBI on the day, while Bendo was 2-for-2 and also drove in three.

• The teams combined for 27 hits in the game, with seven of them going for extra bases.

HAWK TALK
"It was a tough weekend; I feel like we gave some things away at costly times, especially yesterday, which is disappointing and frustrating at the same time," head coach Fritz Hamburg said on Sunday.  "We need to take care of the little things.  We definitely battled much better today offensively, which needs to be the norm.  The biggest frustration was how we pitched.  We have to be so much sharper and more competitive if we are going to reach our goals.  We've played a tough schedule up front and had some good wins but quite honestly, I am disappointed to be 5-8.  I feel like we should be better than that, but quite frankly, that comes down to execution and we have to get better in all facets.  We will go back at it with Army on Tuesday."

UP NEXT
The Hawks will shift to Port Charlotte for the final two games of their road trip.  On Tuesday, SJU will face Army West Point before meeting Butler on Wednesday.