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MIAMI (April 7, 2015)— Levi Borders was just a double shy of hitting for the cycle as the USF baseball team dropped a midweek matchup to FIU, 13-7, at FIU Baseball Stadium Tuesday night.

Borders tripled in his first at-bat, hit his fifth home run of the season in the fifth and singled in the sixth and ninth innings to fall just short of being the first Bull since 2004 to hit for the cycle. Borders was 4-for-5 on the night, knocking in two runs and scoring two of his own.

The first three USF batters of the game all reached third base, courtesy of triples from Teaf and Levi, and a throwing error that moved Kevin Merrell around. Teaf led off with a triple before coming home on a perfectly executed sacrifice bunt by Merrell. An errant throw by FIU pitcher David Lee got past the first basemen allowing Merrell to reach third. Merrell scored on a wild pitch before Levi Borders tripled to once again place a runner at third.

With one out, Luke Borders was hit by a pitch to place runners at the corners for Luke Maglich. A sacrifice bunt by Maglich scored Levi to give USF the 3-0 lead heading into the bottom half of the inning.

FIU (15-18) got two runs back on a two-run home run by Edwin Rios in the bottom of the inning.

USF (22-11-1) pushed its lead out again, taking advantage of yet another Lee error. With two outs, Teaf drew his team-leading 27th walk of the season and advanced to third on a failed pickoff attempt. One batter later, Merrell drove him home on an RBI single through the right side. An RBI single by Andres Leal in the third extended the USF lead back out to three.

The three-run lead wouldn't last long as FIU plated two runs on a two-out single by Zack Soria in the bottom of the inning. The Panthers would take the lead in the bottom of the fourth, knocking in seven runs thanks in large part to a two-out three run home run by Austin Rodriguez.

The Bulls started to claw their way back, plating runs in the fifth and sixth innings off the bat of Levi Borders. The junior catcher hit his fifth home run of the season to lead off the fifth before hitting an RBI single in the sixth to cut the FIU lead to just four runs.

Teaf tied and then passed Johnny Raburn for ninth all-time in the USF record books after drawing two walks. The senior now has 127 to his name, including 28 this season. Teaf went 1-for-3 on the night, but scored all three times he reached base.

The Panthers added two runs in the final two innings to finish the game with the 13-7 win.  

The Bulls are back at home for a three-game series against conference opponent East Carolina April 10-12. Friday and Saturday are slated for 6:30 p.m. starts with Sunday's finale slated for 1 p.m.

For more information on the USF baseball team, follow @USFBaseball on Twitter.

- #GoBulls -