HUNTSVILLE, Texas – (May 7, 2019) – In a game featuring 23 combined runs on 30 hits between the two teams, Sam Houston State got the most important hit, a walkoff double, to outlast Florida Atlantic University on Tuesday night, 12-11.
Quotable
Head Coach John McCormack:
“The guys kept grinding, but that is a disappointing loss. We have got to pitch better. We gave (Sam Houston State) too many opportunities, and congrats to them, they turned our mistakes into runs.”
The Turning Point
The Owls (32-18) held an 8-0 lead after the top of the third, but SHSU (27-19) battled back to tie it in the fifth and move ahead, 11-8, in the sixth. In the eighth, Joe Montes crushed a three-run home run to tie it, and Dylan Carter worked around a leadoff walk to keep it knotted up heading into the ninth.
The Finish
Mitchell Hartigan led off the ninth with a walk and moved to second on a groundout, but two straight strikeouts stranded him there, as the potential go-ahead run. In the bottom, there was a leadoff walk as well, but Pedro Pages picked off the pinch-runner at first. Unfortunately, another walk set up Jordan Cannon, who doubled to left-center to give the Bearkats the walkoff win.
The Arms
· Hunter Cooley started and threw two hitless innings to begin the night, but ran into trouble in the fourth to give way to the bullpen
· Carter was the most effective reliever of the night, throwing 2 1/3 scoreless frames, with just two hits and a walk against him
· The loss went to Zach Schneider (3-3)
The Bats
· The bookends of the order each reached four times. Eric Rivera was 2-for-3 with a walk and was also hit by a pitch; Wilfredo Alvarez went 3-for-4 with a walk as well
· Both scored two runs, as did Andru Summerall. Summerall also added a two-run single
· Montes rapped his sixth home run of the season, and earlier in the game, Mitchell Hartigan had a two-run shot, his sixth as well
· Francisco Urbaez posted a 2-for-4 night, including a two-run triple that kicked off the FAU scoring, all the way back in the first
· Nicholas Toney recorded his first collegiate extra base hit, a double, a scored a run
What’s Next
On Wednesday, the Owls will play Houston, at a different first pitch time than originally set, now at 4 p.m. Eastern. For tickets to the next FAU home game, May 14 against UCF, 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.
