BOCA RATON, Fla. – (March 29, 2019) – The Florida Atlantic University baseball team, behind a combined five-hit shutout from Mike Ruff and Zach Schneider, clinched the conference set Saturday night against FIU by the slimmest of margins, 1-0.
Quotable
Head Coach John McCormack:
“You don’t see many one-nothing games in college baseball these days. Mike Ruff was fantastic and Zach (Schneider) was really good. We did enough offensively to win one-nothing, so it was a good game.”
The Turning Point
The Owls (18-9, 7-1 Conference USA) had a runner on in each of their first five frames, but were able to finally push one across in the sixth. Andru Summerall led off and reached on an error, moved to second on a Pedro Pages single and third on a groundout to the right side. A wild pitch on a 1-1 count provided the game’s only run, and the Owl pitching was able to make it hold up.
The Finish
Ruff was dominant, with only two bunt singles against him in the first six innings, and another single up the middle in the seventh. He ran into his only bit of trouble in the eighth, issuing a one-out walk, and after an out, another infield single, and a two-out walk. With the bases loaded, the Owls turned to closer Zach Schneider, who struck out Javier Valdes looking on a 2-2 pitch to keep the lead. He gave up a single in the ninth but nothing more for his sixth save and the Owls’ seventh win in eight league games.
The Arms
· Ruff (4-0) went a career-long 7 2/3 innings and struck out a career-high 11 Panthers (also the season high by an Owl pitcher)
· Only one of the four hits against him left the infield, and it was until the eighth before FIU put multiple runners on
· Schneider got his sixth save in seven games
· The duo combined for 13 punchouts, matching a season high as a team (Rice on March 17)
The Bats
· The Owls had seven hits, two each by Mitchell Hartigan and Pages. Hartigan has now reached base in 15 consecutive games, the highest amount by an Owl this year
· Among his two hits, Hartigan had a double (as did Francisco Urbaez) and Pages walked for the team-high 15th time this year to reach three times
· Gunnar Lambert tripled with one out in the first; Bobby Morgensen added the team’s other hit, a single in the fourth
What’s Next
The series finale begins at noon on Sunday, Nick Swan starting for the Owls against FIU’s Franco Aleman. 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.
