BOCA RATON, Fla. – (May 14, 2019) – The Florida Atlantic University baseball team trailed 7-0, and battled back to tie the game at 8-8, but was unable to take the lead and would eventually fall on Tuesday night to UCF, 13-10.
Quotable
Head Coach John McCormack:
“Congratulations to UCF, they swung the bat well. I thought our guys swung the bat well, we’ve just got to pitch better. This whole game is on the mound, and we’ve got to do a better job. But we’ve got to also put it behind us, we’ve got a lot of stuff going on this weekend. I just told the team, you’re a good team, good teams bounce back. These Tuesday night things, they get away from you sometimes. I was proud of the way the guys, down 8-0, battled back. Had a chance to take the lead, but then credit to UCF, they did what they were supposed to do.”
The Turning Point
UCF (32-19) scored four times in their first at-bat and added three more in the third. A five-spot for FAU (34-18) cut it momentarily to two, just before the Knights pushed it out to 8-5 with a run in the fourth. Three run-scoring singles in the FAU fifth tied it, and the Owls had the go-ahead run at second, but the next two were retired, and UCF went back out ahead for good on a three-run home run in the sixth.
The Finish
The Owls didn’t go away, with a run in each of the sixth and seventh innings to make it a one-run game again. Again, UCF would have an answer, as Dalton Wingo’s third home run of the game, a two-run shot, wrapped the scoring. The last two FAU at-bats saw just one runner reach, a one-out hit-by-pitch in the ninth, as the Knights took the midweek affair.
The Arms
· Michael Schuler (3-1) suffered his first collegiate loss, allowing the sixth-inning home run
· Eric Keating was efficient right after him, getting that frame’s final out, plus a scoreless seventh
· Retiring all five batters he faced, as the final Owl pitcher of the night, was Dylan O’Connell. His perfect night needed just 17 pitches (12 strikes), with a punchout
The Bats
· The Owls had 17 hits, led by Pedro Pages with four, including his sixth home run of the season. He had three RBI
· The top two batters in the lineup, Eric Rivera and Bobby Morgensen, each had three hits. Rivera scored three times and Morgensen twice; Morgensen knocked in two
· Mitchell Hartigan also had two RBI and a two-hit night, a single and a double
· Wilfredo Alvarez extended his streak of reaching safely to 10 games with two walks, scoring twice
What’s Next
The final regular season series sees the Owls host Middle Tennessee, with first pitch at 6:30 p.m. on both Thursday and Friday, and a 1 p.m. start Saturday afternoon. For tickets, call 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.
