FGCU baseball sweeps weekend series with UMBC, lends some advice

FGCU baseball swept the season series with UMBC this weekend, but the teams connected with one another beyond the diamond as well.

After 16-seed UMBC basketball made history by beating a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament, the baseball team reached out to FGCU on how to handle their newfound fame.

FGCU became an expert on the topic after their 2013 tournament run that awarded the program the title of “dunk city.”

According to program officials, the fame energized the alumni population, the donor population and put a spotlight on the school. And now they’re passing that advice along to UMBC.

“Take advantage of it. It’s going to be very busy for the next four months but take full advantage,” said Chris Simoneau, FGCU vice president of University Advancement. “Their challenge is to leverage that 48 hours. We had about eight, nine days to leverage that so I worry that it is a bit of a flash in the pan which is why I’m encouraging them to milk it as much as they possibly can.”

It also gave the program an opportunity to work with the media, get on social media, interact with donors and launch alumni chapters.

“It’s a big boost to your athletic program. It helps your boosters, and it helps everything. It helps with recruitment and just not athletically. It put us on the map,” said Dave Tollett, FGCU baseball coach.

Even though UMBC’s claim to fame is more about their basketball team, ripples are often felt throughout schools’ athletic programs—within all sports.

“We all feel a certain amount of wind at our backs at this point,” said Liam Bowen, Associate Head Coach with UMBC. “So yeah, I’d say we’re all walking around a little bit taller.”

Andrew Keesee has the story in the video above.