CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The No. 20 Florida Atlantic University baseball team fell in their midweek matchup to No. 5 Miami, on Tuesday night.
QuotableHead Coach John McCormack:
“When you play a good baseball team like the University of Miami, you can’t give them free bases, and we did that plenty. In the third, they scored two runs with no hits, and it continued in the fourth, gave them some free bases and they capitalized. And credit to their pitcher (Jake Garland), he did a really nice job of keeping us off-balance. His changeup was working well. But it’s baseball, it’s one game and we have to move on.”
The Beginning
FAU (8-3) got on the board first, as Wilfredo Alvarez turned on the fourth pitch of the game and lined it into the rightfield corner for a triple. He would immediately score on B.J. Murray’s first-pitch sac fly. As McCormack alluded to, the Hurricanes (6-4) took the lead for good on two runs without a hit, with both coming across on RBI groundouts in the third.
The Turning Point
In the UM fourth, two doubles scored one run, another came in on a wild pitch, and an RBI single and sac fly made it 6-1. At that point, there were two outs, but the big blow came next, a three-run home run to clear the bases.
The Finish
The Hurricanes added a run each in the fifth and sixth, but the final three Owl relievers came on to all put up zeroes. Dylan O’Connell came on with one on and nobody out in the sixth, and got an immediate double play and a flyout. Then a pair of freshmen, Sam Drumheller and Nicholas Del Prado, followed suit. Drumheller pitched a 1-2-3 seventh, and Del Prado utilized another DP for a scoreless eighth. The final run of the game came in when UM turned a twin-killing of their own, but Victor Castillo scored for FAU in the top half of the eighth.
The Arms
- TJ Stuart (0-2) suffered the loss
- Drumheller’s scoreless frame included strikeouts for the second and third outs
- Del Prado needed just eight pitches for his best inning as an Owl
The Bats
- Alvarez notched two of FAU’s six hits, raising his season average to .340
- He scored his team-high 17th run as well
- Murray singled to extend his reached-base streak to 14 games
- The other hits came courtesy of Mitchell Hartigan, Nicholas Toney and Jared DeSantolo
What’s Next
The Owls host Indiana State for a three-game set, beginning Thursday night at 6:30 p.m. Reserve tickets on FAU’s baseball tickets website or by calling 1-866-FAU-OWLS.
