JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – (Feb. 26, 2019) – Down six, a Pedro Pages grand slam in the ninth made it dramatic, but North Florida held off the Florida Atlantic University baseball team on Tuesday night, 7-5 at Harmon Stadium.
Quotable
Head Coach John McCormack:
“We just couldn’t make the play, pitch, or get the hit when it counted. We have got to get better in a hurry. I am proud of the guys fighting back in the ninth, but it was too little, too late. We look forward to tomorrow’s opportunity to get better.”
The Turning Point
UNF (6-3) scored twice in the first, and added one more in each of the second and third innings. The Owls (3-5) got on the board in the fifth, when Eric Rivera singled in Francisco Urbaez with two outs, and brought the tying run to the plate two different times in the sixth, and once more in the seventh. But the Ospreys added three more in the home seventh to make it 6-1.
The Finish
In the ninth, Wilfredo Alvarez reached on an infield single with one out, and Rivera singled to center on a line drive for his fourth hit of the night. A walk to Gunnar Lambert loaded the bases, and Pages rocketed a shot out to left for the first grand slam of his college career. An out later, Joe Montes singled to bring the tying run to the plate, but a flyout ended the drama.
The Arms
· Hunter Cooley dropped to 1-2 with the loss, allowing three earned runs
· Dylan Carter threw 2 1/3 innings for the second straight appearance, and was tremendous again, giving up just one hit with two strikeouts
· Pitching the final two innings, also scoreless, was Jacob Josey. The only baserunner to reach against him, of seven, was on a walk
The Bats
· Rivera notched the third four-hit game of his career, and raised his batting average 140 points in the process, to .366
· Pages added a double as well, for his first two extra base hits of the season
· Alvarez recorded his second straight two-hit game, and Urbaez had a double for the second consecutive game (and third of four)
· Andru Summerall reached three times and now has a team-high on-base percentage of .472
· The Owls had the leadoff batter reach in six of nine innings
What’s Next
The finale in Jacksonville will begin at 3:05 p.m. Wednesday against the Ospreys. The team returns home Friday for the first of a three-game set against Monmouth, starting at 6:05 p.m. Tickets are available 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.
