BOCA RATON, Fla. – (April 27, 2019) – The Florida Atlantic University baseball team cut a five-run deficit down to one, but a six-run Old Dominion eighth sealed the series for the Monarchs, 12-6 on Saturday night. The Owls look to avoid a sweep with the Sunday finale beginning at noon.
Quotable
Head Coach John McCormack:
“(Credit to) Old Dominion for winning the series. We didn’t do much of anything today, we didn’t pitch well … Down 5-0 before we could do anything. We scraped back into it, 5-4, and then we have an absolutely meltdown with the pitching staff (in the eighth). They see a wounded pitching staff, and they took advantage of it. Tomorrow is huge. I never say ‘must-win,’ but it is certainly a crucial game.”
The Turning Point
ODU (26-16, 9-11 Conference USA) took a 5-0 lead early, with runs in each of the first four innings, and heading into the sixth, FAU (28-14, 14-6 C-USA) had only two hits, and hadn’t yet gotten a runner into scoring position. The Owls broke through with three, two on an Andru Summerall two-out single, and a Bobby Morgensen home run leading off the seventh cut it to 5-4. But the Monarchs brought 11 to the plate in the crucial eighth to regain the momentum.
The Finish
FAU got back two in their half of the eighth, as Morgensen knocked in two more with a seeing-eye single. An unearned run came across for ODU in the ninth, and the Monarchs stranded two in the bottom half to clinch the series.
The Arms
· Mike Ruff (4-3) took the loss
· Putting up two zeroes after the Monarchs had scored in every inning to that point was reliever Eric Keating. He scattered three hits and had two strikeouts in his two frames
· Inheriting first and second with one out, and with already, six runs having scored in in the eighth, Jon Jon Kostantis came in to get the next two outs
· He gave up just two hits and an unearned run in 1 2/3 innings, with a K
The Bats
· Morgensen was 2-for-3, and his three RBI gives him 26 this year. He now has a seven-game hitting streak and has reached base in each of his last 16 games
· Summerall has two RBI in each game of the series and 32 on the season, tying for the team lead
· Along with Morgensen, Pedro Pages (23 games) and Eric Rivera (18) also extended their streaks reaching base. Each had a hit and a walk
What’s Next
The Sunday finale will pit starting pitchers Jacob Josey against Ryne Moore of ODU. 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.
