It may have taken a little longer than he would have liked, but career victory No. 1,300 for Stetson head coach Pete Dunn was still sweet.

Dunn’s Hatters, after dropping the first two games of their Atlantic Sun Conference opening series at Florida Gulf Coast, battled from behind to take the series finale 5-3 to give their coach his milestone win.

Dunn is just the 21st head coach in Division I baseball history to record 1,300 career wins.

“I think it is about longevity, it just means that I am old,” Dunn said of his historic win. “If you hang around long enough good things happen. I have just outlasted a lot of guys. It is special because there are some great names on the board, and I am proud of what we have done.

“The milestone really is a testament to the student-athletes that I have been fortunate enough to work with and to the administration that I have been able to work for. I have worked for three presidents at Stetson – Pope Duncan, Doug Lee and Wendy Libby – and they have all been very supportive of our baseball program.

Dunn was also proud of the way his team responded on Sunday to adversity, both in the game, and left over from Saturday’s loss.

“I was not a happy camper after Saturday’s game because we were not able to get bunts down,” Dunn said. “We keep preaching that and working on it in practice. I have been telling them that it is going to cost us a game, and it certainly contributed last night.

“We haven’t proven that we can score a lot of runs, so we have to be able to play the short game. With the way our pitching has been, you have to believe that if you can get a few runs on the board they have a chance to make it stand up.”

The Hatters were able to get bunts down on Sunday, with sacrifices in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings contributing runs as Stetson rallied from a 3-1 deficit to take the win.

Senior Will Mackenzie, a team captain, got things started with a sacrifice bunt in the seventh inning to move Kevin Fagan and Austin Hale, who had delivered back-to-back singles off FGCU starter Ryan Lang, into scoring position. Jacob Koos followed with a ground ball to score Fagan, cutting the deficit to 3-2.

In the eighth, against reliever Christian Townsend (0-1) it was just Colton Lightner who came off the bunch to get a bunt down, moving Matt Morales, who had singled to open the inning, into scoring position. Cory Reid followed with a RBI single to tie the game. After stealing his second bag of the day, Reid scored on a single by Fagan to put the Hatters in front 4-3.

In the ninth it was Koos who got down a bunt, moving Mackenzie up after a leadoff hit, leading to an insurance run. After Vance Vizcaino singled Mackenzie to third, Morales delivered a ground ball to score the run.

“I was proud of the way we kept coming back today,” Dunn said. “It is a start. We are not where we’d like to be, and we can play better, but we have to take it one step at a time. Today, we did a good job with the short game. It is a process. We didn’t get the job done the first two days, but I am really proud of the way that we played today.”

Once the Hatters got the lead, the game was in the hands of closer Walker Sheller (2-1). Normally just an eighth or ninth inning pitcher, Sheller came into the game in the sixth inning on Sunday with FGCU leading and threatening to add more.

“I talked with Coach (Dave) Therneau before the game about the closer not always being for just late in the game,” Dunn said. “Sometimes you need to use your closer in the middle of the game when the game is on the line. That is where we were in the sixth. We may never have gotten to Sheller later if we didn’t go to him when we did. He is our go-to guy and he did exactly what he needed to do. He shut that inning down and got the win.”

Sheller worked 3.2 innings in relief of starter Logan Gilbert after an inning of work from Josh Thorne. Sheller allowed just two hits and one walk with four strikeouts, including the clincher with two runners on base.

Gilbert worked the first 4.1 innings for Stetson despite not being at 100 percent physically.

“I was really proud of the way Gibby came out and threw because he hit the wall early today,” Dunn said. “It was a hot day and he was throwing up before the game, but he still wanted to go out there. Logan (Speicher) was able to keep some fluids in him, and he gave us everything he had for almost five innings.”

Gilbert struck out four in his outing, allowing two runs on seven hits. Thorne allowed an unearned run in his inning of work, thanks to the second of three Stetson errors in the game.

The Hatters got on the board first when Austin Hale opened the third inning with a single, moved up to third on a double by Koos and scored on a ground ball by Vizcaino.

The Eagles got back-to-back infield singles from Matt Roberts and Gage Morey to start the fifth inning off Gilbert. After a sacrifice bunt moved them both up, Corey Fehriback dropped a double down the right field line to put FGCU up 2-1.

Reid, Fagan, Hale and Mackenzie led the Hatters on offense with two hits each in the game. Matt Reardon continued his long hitting streak for the Eagles and had three hits on the afternoon.

“Right now we are just trying to win games and play better,” Dunn said. “This was a big win for this team, but we have to keep getting better. It is a nice milestone, but we are trying to get this team back on track.”

The Hatters will enjoy a few days off before getting right back into A-Sun play next Friday, opening a series on the road against defending league champion North Florida.

“It doesn’t get any easier because we have to go to North Florida next week,” Dunn said. “We knew coming down here that we were going to be in for all we could handle, and we are fortunate to come out of here with one win. We don’t have a mid-week game, so we have some time to rest up to get ready for North Florida.”

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