BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – (March 23, 2019) – Florida Atlantic University baseball, for the second straight week, clinched a Conference USA set with a Saturday win, and will look for a series sweep again after topping UAB, 6-2. Saturday also marked the Owls’ 10th straight victory, a plateau not reached since 11 consecutive wins in 2013.
Quotable
Head Coach John McCormack:
“Fantastic game by Mike Ruff, really impressive the way he threw. He was able to keep the ball down, threw his secondary pitch for strikes, kept them off-balance, and his velocity was good all through the game. Offensively, we did enough. Early, we had a ton of chances, and credit to UAB, they turned a couple of double plays to get them out of it. We were able to get the offense going, Andru (Summerall) had the big hit to score two and make it 5-1. It was a good win for us, anytime you win a series on the road, it’s good.”
The Turning Point
It was a 2-0 game when UAB (10-14, 0-5 C-USA) began the fifth getting a double and a walk, and advancing both into scoring position with just one out. The Blazers got on the board with a sacrifice fly, but Mike Ruff bore down for a groundout to keep the one-run edge. FAU (16-7, 5-0 C-USA) tacked on with a sac fly of their own in the sixth, and Ruff stranded a one-out walk with two strikeouts to wrap his final inning of work in the home half.
The Finish
The Owls got cushion with a three-run seventh, with all of the scoring coming with two outs. Andru Summerall laced a double to right-center to plate two, and Pedro Pages followed up by knocking Summerall in with an opposite-field single. Dylan Carter was great in relief, earning a three-out save and giving the Owls a chance for a Sunday sweep.
The Arms / The Gloves
· Ruff scattered four hits in his six innings of work. He struck out seven, two off his career high
· Carter’s second save was three innings of three-hit, one-run relief
· He helped himself out in the ninth, bringing in a comebacker to start a 1-4-3 double play
· Pages gunned down the nation’s leading basestealer, Jess Davis (26-of-29 coming into the game), to end the third. That’s the junior catcher’s ninth runner caught stealing this year
The Bats
· Pages had a three-hit night, with a double and two singles, the RBI and a run scored
· Summerall added a third RBI with a sac fly, scored twice, and was 2-for-3
· Jared DeSantolo and Gunnar Lambert both had two hits; Joe Montes had a double, a walk, a two RBI
· DeSantolo now has the Owls’ longest hit streak of the season, at 11 games and counting. He’s reached in 13 straight
What’s Next
The finale Sunday begins at 1 p.m. Eastern (noon in Birmingham). It’ll be Nick Swan starting for FAU against UAB’s Tyler Gates. Next week, for four home games, and for all remaining contest at FAU Baseball Stadium, get tickets 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.
