BOCA RATON, Fla. – (May 17, 2019) – Six unanswered runs early erased a three-run deficit, and the No. 29 Florida Atlantic University baseball team held on at the end to top Middle Tennessee on Friday night, 8-7. The win cements the No. 1 seed for the Owls in the upcoming Conference USA Championship, and a win in the Saturday finale would mean an outright C-USA regular season title for the squad.
REMINDER: Saturday’s finale has been moved up to a noon start. Senior Day ceremonies will begin at 11:35 a.m.
Quotable
Head Coach John McCormack:
“Couldn’t be prouder, it was a tough one tonight. A lot of stuff on the line, it was a tough one (but) the guys did enough. I can’t say enough about Dylan O’Connell’s relief appearance. It’s really special because of where he has come from. Two years, basically, on the shelf with an injury, and didn’t get off to a great start this year and just kind of kept gaining confidence.”
“All in all, it was a good night. Congratulations, (but) they told me no celebrating until they win it outright. I said, ‘a little subdued,’ they said, ‘we haven’t won anything yet, we don’t want to be co-champs, we want to be champions.”
The Turning Point
Middle Tennessee (18-36, 11-18 C-USA) scored three runs, on two home runs, in the first, but FAU (36-18, 21-8 C-USA) worked quickly to knot things up, then take the lead for good. Three came across in the first, the go-ahead run on a single by Andru Summerall in the second, and two more in the third to double the Blue Raiders at that point, 6-3.
The Finish
The MT bullpen stymied the Owls’ bats, and a run in the fifth drew the visitors to within two. The only hit over the final five FAU innings was a timely one, a Francisco Urbaez solo shot in the seventh, and though MT got it back in the eight, the Owls played small ball for one more in the eighth: Eric Rivera walked, stole second, went to third on a wild pitch, and scored on a Summerall sac fly. The Blue Raiders got two in the ninth on their third homer, but a groundout clinched the win, the series, and the C-USA title.
The Arms
· A high pitch count chased starter Mike Ruff midway through the fourth. He did record five strikeouts
· With two on and one out, Jon Jon Kostantis got back-to-back K’s of his own to get out of the jam in that frame
· Dylan O’Connell (1-0) would then come on and have a tremendous night to pick up the victory. In a career-long three innings, he allowed just three hits and a run and set another new standard with four K’s
· Schneider wrapped it up with his 13th save
The Bats
· Summerall and Urbaez each had two RBI
· Eight of the nine Owl starters had a hit, with Summerall and Montes notching two apiece
· All eight of those starters each also scored one run
What’s Next
Saturday wraps the regular season, a noon first pitch. Again, Senior Day festivities will be held ahead, beginning at 11:35 a.m. Tickets for the final opportunity to see the championship-winning Owls at home can be had 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.
