CHARLOTTE, N.C. – (April 5, 2019) – The Florida Atlantic University baseball team scored the first six runs of the game, and successfully scattered at least one Charlotte hit in every inning, topping the 49ers Friday night, 8-4 at Hayes Stadium.
Quotable
Head Coach John McCormack:
“I thought it was a good win by our guys, under some adverse conditions that we’re certainly not used to playing in. One being turf, and two being the rain and the mist. That’s a fast surface, and I thought our infielders did a really nice job, especially Joe Montes. We had the four-run second followed up by two more, and credit to Charlotte, they rallied, but (Blake) Sanderson and (Vince) Coletti did enough. We gave up 15 hits and only four runs, you don’t really ever see that. Overall, a good night.”
The Turning Point
Just like in the fifth against Miami Wednesday, the FAU (21-9, 9-1 Conference USA) second began with four straight singles. Pedro Pages, Bobby Morgensen, Joe Montes and Mitchell Hartigan all got clean hits, with Montes and Hartigan making it a 2-0 lead. A third run came in on a Jacob Josey groundout; a fourth on a Francisco Urbaez single. Then, in the third, Montes absolutely annihilated a 2-2 pitch for a two-run shot and a six-run lead.
The Finish
Charlotte (12-16-1, 3-6-1 C-USA) scored three times in the sixth, but FAU got two back in their next at-bat, on a sacrifice fly by Pages and another RBI single by Hartigan. Blake Sanderson got the win, pitching into the seventh, and Vince Coletti wrapped things with 2 1/3 innings scoreless.
The Arms
· Sanderson is now 7-0. In 6 2/3 innings, he did not walk a batter and struck out four
· He now has a 42:11 strikeout to walk ratio on the season, and has gone six innings or more in all but one of his eight starts
· Coletti spread out the four hits against him and had a punchout as well. That’s his 13th scoreless outing of a team-high 18 appearances
The Bats
· Morgensen, Montes and Hartigan, hitting back-to-back-to-back in the Owls’ lineup, combined to go 10-for-13 on the night
· Morgensen notched an FAU career-best four hits, scoring three runs, and now has a five-game hitting streak
· Over that span, he’s raised his average 50 points, to .304
· Hartigan reached four times, had his first career three-hit game and knocked in two, while Montes recorded his 10th three-hit game over his two years with the Owls, scoring twice with three RBI
· Eric Rivera had two hits out of the leadoff slot
· Pages has reached base in 11 straight games
What’s Next
Game two features the starting pitching matchup of Mike Ruff versus Bryce McGowan of Charlotte, beginning at 2 p.m. The next home series begins April 12 against Louisiana Tech, and for tickets, call 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.
