| BOCA RATON, Fla. – Florida Atlantic University baseball fell victim to a late Old Dominion rally to break open a tie game in Friday night’s 7-2 loss to the Monarchs at FAU Baseball Stadium. Quotable Head Coach John McCormack: “I thought it was a really good game until the eighth. Hunter Cooley pitched great. We’ve got to be better, we’ve got to figure out a way to score some runs. We had plenty of opportunities, bases loaded twice and ended up with two runs.” The Beginning ODU (22-5, 8-1 Conference USA) plated two two-out unearned runs in the second. The Owls (15-14, 4-5 C-USA), as McCormack mentioned, loaded the bases in both the fourth and fifth, the latter with no one out. But only one run came across in each frame, each coming on a bases-loaded walk. The Turning Point / The Finish Pitching into the eighth, Cooley was lifted after allowing two singles, sandwiched around a strikeout. On the very next pitch, a pinch-hit three-run home run put ODU into the lead, and they’d go on to score twice more in the inning. The Owls would not be able to cut into that deficit in either of their last two turns. The Arms Cooley (4-3) pitched the longest outing by an Owl this year, striking out six in 7 1/3Jack Stroud ended the eighth and threw a 1-2-3 ninth as well The Bats Nolan Schanuel, Nicholas Toney and Sam Low all reached three times, Schanuel and Low pacing the squad with two hits each The RBI came from Toney and Low as well, with Wilfredo Alvarez and Schanuel scoring What’s Next The Owls host the Monarchs for a Saturday doubleheader, two games scheduled for seven inning each, prior to Sunday’s series finale. |
