FAU Baseball Kicks Off Road Trip with Win over No. 29 USM

HATTIESBURG, Miss. – (May 3, 2019) – Florida Atlantic University baseball and No. 29 Southern Miss went back and forth for seven innings on Friday, with four ties and two lead changes. But the Owls went ahead to stay in the eighth and snapped the Golden Eagles’ nine-game winning streak in the process, 8-5 in the first game of three at Pete Taylor Park. The team are now separated by one game in the Conference USA standings.

Quotable

Head Coach John McCormack:

“What a great game, guys played great. The offense was fantastic tonight, we had a ton of two-out big hits. Proud of the guys, played clean defense, and you just can’t say enough about the clutch hitting. It was an impressive win for the Owls.”

The Turning Point

The game was tied at 1-1, 2-2, 3-3 and then with a Southern Miss (30-14, 17-5 C-USA) run in the bottom of the seventh, at 4-4. In the FAU (31-14, 16-6 C-USA) eighth, Joe Montes doubled into the leftfield corner to lead off the inning, and Andru Summerall singled up the middle four pitches later to knock him in and make it 5-4.

The Finish

Vince Coletti threw a 1-2-3 eighth, the first delivered by Owls’ pitching on the night. Insurance was added when Eric Rivera plated two with a single to center, and Diamond Johnson singled in another, for a four-run lead. Southern Miss scored one in the home half, and had the tying run at the plate with one out, but Zach Schneider struck out Matt Wallner and induced a flyout to end it.

The Arms

·         Blake Sanderson turned in a quality start, three runs on seven hits in six innings

·         Coletti (4-2) earned the win, striking out three in 2 1/3

·         Schneider posted his 11th save

The Bats

·         Eight of the nine starters, plus Johnson, contributed hits towards FAU’s 13 total

·         Mitchell Hartigan had a 3-for-4 night with two runs scored and an RBI (a two-out single in the fourth)

·         The bottom third of the lineup reached a combined seven times: Hartigan three times, Francisco Urbaez three times (two walks and a single), and Wilfredo Alvarez tacked on an RBI single in the seventh

·         Montes and Pedro Pages each had two hits; Montes with his sixth home run and a double (plus a walk), Pages with a single and a double

·         Rivera had three RBI

What’s Next

Game two against the Golden Eagles is scheduled for 3 p.m. Eastern (2 p.m. locally). It’s the second of eight in a row on the road, with the first game back in Boca Raton on May 14 against UCF. 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.