BOCA RATON, Fla. – (March 27, 2019) – The Florida Atlantic University baseball team trailed 7-0 to Miami before getting their first hit of the night. They cut it to 7-6 in the sixth and had the tying run 90 feet away, but after not plating it, gave up nine unanswered towards a 16-6 loss on Wednesday night at FAU Baseball Stadium.
Quotable
Head Coach John McCormack:
“Not a good night here at the ballpark for us. Extremely disappointed in the way we pitched, and we had some opportunities offensively … the guys got themselves in some good counts, we had a shot there in the sixth. To make it 7-6, I thought the guys rallied. Credit to Miami, their relief pitching did what it was supposed to do, and we end up on the wrong side of (tonight).
The Turning Point
Miami (16-9) scored five in the first and two more in the second. The Owls (16-9) scraped back with one in the third, and two home runs in the fifth (a two-run opposite field shot by Mitchell Hartigan and solo blast by Gunnar Lambert), making it 7-4. Then, in the sixth, Joe Montes singled in two with two outs, cutting it to a one-run game. A walk and hit batter loaded the bases, but a groundout kept the potential tying run at third.
The Finish
From there, it was all Hurricanes. Five more came across in the seventh, three in the eighth and one in the ninth. The Owls were kept off the scoreboard for the remainder of the game, with just one hit off of three UM relievers.
The Arms
· Ryan Sandberg (1-1) took the loss
· Keeping the Owls in it were a pair of freshmen. Hunter Cooley came on with one out in the first, got the next two batters out, and allowed only two runs in 2 2/3 innings
· Jon Jon Kostantis followed and was even more impressive, allowing only a hit in three frames. Both first-years struck out two batters
· Wrapping the night was Dylan O’Connell, striking out the first two batters he faced and three in total, a new career high
The Bats
· Montes had a double in addition to his two-run single, and scored a run
· For Lambert, it was his fifth home run, and Hartigan his second
· Hartigan has reached base in 13 straight; Pedro Pages now has a six-game hitting streak
· Jacob Josey doubled for his first FAU extra base hit in the third, and scored on an Eric Rivera single
What’s Next
FAU hosts FIU for a three-game conference series this weekend, starting Friday night at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are available by calling 1-866-FAU-OWLS.
– FAUSports.com –
Florida Atlantic University Athletics:
FAU Athletics is comprised of 21 intercollegiate teams involving 450 student-athletes that compete in baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, soccer, softball, swimming and diving, tennis, indoor and outdoor track, volleyball, beach volleyball, cheer and dance. The Owls are a NCAA Division I-A (FBS) institution and compete in Conference USA and the Coastal Collegiate Sports Association (CCSA) (beach volleyball, men’s swimming). The Owls have been playing football since 2001 and are a perfect 3-0 in bowl games, the most recent being a 50-3 victory over Akron in the 2017 Cheribundi Tart Cherry Boca Raton Bowl. The dance team finished its 2014 season No. 8, nationally. FAU cheer won a national championship in 2016.
About Florida Atlantic University:
Florida Atlantic University, established in 1961, officially opened its doors in 1964 as the fifth public university in Florida. Today, the University, with an annual economic impact of $6.3 billion, serves more than 30,000 undergraduate and graduate students at sites throughout its six county service region in southeast Florida. FAU’s world-class teaching and research faculty serves students through 10 colleges: the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, the College of Business, the College for Design and Social Inquiry, the College of Education, the College of Engineering and Computer Science, the Graduate College, the Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College, the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine, the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing and the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science. FAU is ranked as a High Research Activity institution by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The University is placing special focus on the rapid development of critical areas that form the basis of its strategic plan: Healthy aging, biotech, coastal and marine issues, neuroscience, regenerative medicine, informatics, lifespan and the environment. These areas provide opportunities for faculty and students to build upon FAU’s existing strengths in research and scholarship. For more information, visit www.fau.edu.
