BOCA RATON, Fla. – (May 18, 2019) – With Saturday’s final day win over Middle Tennessee, 8-7, the No. 29 Florida Atlantic University baseball team will finish on top of the Conference USA standings as undisputed regular season champions. The Owls’ 22-8 C-USA mark is the most wins earned in league play since 2003 (25-8 in a 33-game schedule in the Atlantic Sun).
Quotable
Head Coach John McCormack:
“Unbelievable. We were behind in the first (inning) every game … and they did what they needed to do. We could’ve made things easier on ourselves, we had a couple of opportunities there and weren’t able to cash in, (and) Middle Tennessee made some good pitches. It’s a little bit difficult to play, sometimes, in these types of situations when there’s so much on the line. But the guys did it. It wasn’t ideal, but it was well worth it.”
The Turning Point
For the third straight game, Middle Tennessee (18-37, 11-19 C-USA) had a multi-run first inning, with back-to-back two-out home runs, and added two more the next frame for a 4-0 lead. But the Owls (37-18, 22-8 C-USA) quickly battled back to tie it in their half of the second, beginning with four straight hits: a Joe Montes double and Mitchell Hartigan single; RBI double by Francisco Urbaez; and run-scoring single by Jacob Pino. Then, Eric Rivera singled in both Urbaez and Pino to knot it up at 4-4.
The Finish
Four more Owl runs gave them a lead they wouldn’t relinquish, and Nick Swan saved his best for last, in his final home game. He threw scoreless relief for five innings, before only allowing a solo shot in the seventh. Though MT got a two-out home run in the ninth, for the second straight day Zach Schneider shut the door, with a lineout to right sending the Owls out of the dugout for a celebratory dogpile
The Arms
· Jacob Josey went two innings in his fifth start
· The final line for Swan (2-1) was 5 1/3 innings, four hits and a run, no walks, and a career-best eight strikeouts in his 63rd career appearance
· After the home run, he was replaced to an ovation by fellow senior Vince Coletti, who needed just six pitches to get the final two outs of the eighth, including a strikeout
· Schneider is now up to 14 saves on the season
The Bats
· On their Senior Days, Joe Montes and Jacob Pino combined for five hits and four runs
· Montes went 3-for-4 with a double; Pino was 2-for-3, and notched his first career RBI
· Also with three hits were Eric Rivera and Francisco Urbaez, the latter a triple away from the cycle. Aside from his double in the second, Urbaez had a solo home run in the fourth and a bunt single in the fifth
· Rivera reached four times, adding a walk to his three singles. He had the two RBI and scored a run
· After the Urbaez homer (his 10th of the year and second in as many days), Andru Summerall rapped an RBI single that same frame, and Pedro Pages added a sacrifice fly
· Wilfredo Alvarez had a sac fly as well (to wrap the Owls’ scoring in the fifth), plus a walk and reached on catcher’s interference
What’s Next
The 2019 Conference USA Championship begins next Wednesday, May 22, at MGM Park in Biloxi, Mississippi. The top-seeded Owls will play in Game 3 on the first day, against No. 8 seed UTSA, starting at 5 p.m. Eastern time. All games prior to the championship will air on ESPN+, with the final game on CBS Sports Network, and FAU will offer a free radio stream as always. Stay tuned for more information on the tournament soon.
– 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.
