FAU and UAB Split Saturday’s Baseball Doubleheader

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Florida Atlantic University baseball and UAB split each end of Saturday’s doubleheader, with the Owls taking the opener, 2-1, but the Blazers recovering with a 4-2 decision in the nightcap.

Steven Loden’s seventh inning home run – the first of his young FAU career – proved to be the game-winner in the FAU (17-18, 6-9 Conference USA) victory, while UAB (12-22, 5-10 C-USA) took advantage of three first-inning errors and held off a potential Owls’ rally mid-game to split the day.

Quotable
Head Coach John McCormack:
“Doubleheaders are always tough days. Dante (Visconti) was really good in game one and Steven Loden was the difference maker with his first HR of the year game two. We didn’t play good defense in the bottom of the first and it cost us. We had an opportunities and could not capitalize. We have got to be ready to go tomorrow.”

Game One
The Beginning
The Owls scored first, in the third, on back-to-back doubles by Jackson Wenstrom and Wilfedo Alvarez. Dante Visconti made the slim cushion hold up with five straight scoreless innings to start.

The Turning Point / The Finish
In the sixth, UAB scraped across a run on a sacrifice fly, the only blemish against Visconti. But Loden’s laser to right pushed the Owls ahead 2-1 in the seventh, and Sam Drumheller came on with one out in the bottom half to retire three straight for his first career save.

The Arms
Visconti (1-2), in longest outing as an Owl, earned his first victory of the seasonHe scattered four hits and the one run, while striking out five in six-plus IPDrumheller’s save was earned via a strikeout, flyout and groundout, and seven strikes in just 10 pitchesCatcher Caleb Pendleton caught Chandler Simpson stealing for the first time all year. The Blazer freshman had been 15-for-15 coming in, including two Friday night

The Bats
Loden’s first collegiate homer was part of a two-hit gameThe other hit, besides the Wenstrom and Alvarez doubles, was a Jalen DeBose single

Game Two
The Beginning
The Blazers scored in each of the first three innings, two in the first (both unearned), a home run in the second and, after FAU pushed one across in the third – Loden doubled and eventually came in on an RBI groundout by Victor Castillo – matched that in the bottom half with a groundout of their own.

The Turning Point
UAB virtually won the game in the fourth. The Owls loaded the bases with nobody out, and after Bobby Morgensen missed a bases-clearing double by mere feet foul, saw his sinking line drive caught on a dive in center. Though that was a sac fly to make it 4-2, UAB induced an immediate inning-ending double play to keep that two-run margin.

The Finish
The sixth and seventh were pretty quiet for the Owls’ bats, with just one baserunner, which was erased on batter’s interference.

The Arms
Starter Matt Sparling (2-3) only allowed two earned runs, struck out five and didn’t walk a batterHe threw 73% of his pitches for strikes, 52 of 71Mike Entenza, after hitting a batter to start the seventh, got the next three Blazers in order, including two K’s

The Bats
Loden doubled to, at that point, up his average on the weekend to .714 (5-of-7)The Owls were held to just three other hits, singles by Alvarez, DeBose and B.J. Murray

What’s Next
The Sunday finale begins at 12:30 p.m. Eastern.