Fresh off big PBC series win, FMU faces tough Mount Olive

FLORENCE — Winning a three-game series at Columbus State is an accomplishment many college baseball teams could justify admiring for a while.

No. 12 Francis Marion, though, doesn’t have time to do that. The Patriots, who got back to Florence late Monday night after completing a 12-5 win and taking two of three games from the No. 4 Cougars, took Tuesday off to rest up before facing another perennial national contender.

FMU (7-4) and Mount Olive are scheduled for a 2 p.m. first pitch today at Cormell Field. The Trojans (5-3) were ranked No. 1 by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper two weeks ago, although they have since fallen to No. 20 after losing three of their last four games.

“I don’t know who put this schedule together,” FMU coach Art Inabinet said, chuckling. “Let’s just say we didn’t dodge anybody when we put it together. Our hope is it will just make us better and better, because there aren’t any easy games on it.”

The Patriots have played or will play seven teams that are either ranked or receiving votes in this week’s Collegiate Baseball Newspaper poll. And then there’s that April 11 game against two-time defending Division I national champ South Carolina, which is ranked No. 2 by Collegiate baseball and No. 3 by Baseball America.

No rest for the weary and no time to look back.

FMU’s series win at Columbus State, though, the teams’ first Peach Belt Conference series of the year, was significant in more than one way.

Inabinet said it’s the first time since he began coaching at FMU in 1998 that the Patriots have won a series at Columbus State.

“To go down and win two games and have a chance to win all three of them was really great,” Inabinet said. “That’s something we haven’t been able to do. That’s something a lot of people in the league haven’t been able to do. They’ve been a tough opponent. They’ve been a really tough opponent playing at home.”

And to get a leg up on a team that figures to contend for the league championship when the latter part of the season rolls around can only help, Inabinet said.

“Historically, they’ve been one of the teams that, at the end of the season, they’re usually there,” he said. “And I would think that’s going to be the case again. And if we’re where we want to be at the end of the season, we’ll probably run into them again.”

Winning at least one of the games was so important to Inabinet that he moved sophomore Jeffrey Stoner, who figured to be in the starting rotation, into the bullpen. Inabinet said he wanted to make sure if the Patriots had a chance to take a game, there was an experienced, strike-throwing arm coming out of the pen.

Stoner delivered. He pitched 2 1/3 scoreless innings to get the save in FMU’s 7-3 win in the series opener Sunday, then came back Monday and went 4 2/3 more scoreless innings to get the win. In the seven innings combined, Stoner surrendered three hits and struck out five.

With FMU playing three games in two days, Inabinet figured Stoner’s weekend was done once he pitched in Sunday’s doubleheader opener.

“But he told me after he got back to the hotel Sunday, he ran two miles and got in the sauna to get his body ready for Monday,” Inabinet said. “And he told me, ‘I’ll pitch as much as you need me.’

“How many guys are going to spend seven or eight hours on the baseball field, then go home, run two miles and make sure your body’s prepared for the next day if you’re called upon? That was pretty special.”

Inabinet said he will move Stoner back into the third weekend starter spot during conference series going forward, behind Spencer Jordan and Don Sandifer.

Senior left-hander Matt Broderick is scheduled to start today against Mount Olive, Inabinet said. Broderick doesn’t have a decision in two appearances this season, including one start. He has given up 15 hits in 13 1/3 innings, has a 2.70 ERA, nine strikeouts and no walks.

Broderick started only three games as a junior a year ago, and one of them was against the Trojans in the Southeast Regional championship game. He gave up two unearned runs over eight innings in Mount Olive’s 2-1 win over the Patriots.