BOCA RATON, Fla. – (Feb. 23, 2020) – The Florida Atlantic University baseball team took both ends of Sunday’s doubleheader over Binghamton, 9-4 and 11-4, to sweep the Bearcats and is off to an unblemished 7-0 start to the 2020 campaign.
Quotable
Head Coach John McCormack:
“Well, it was a long day, the guys played well enough and we won both games … We hit some home runs, Nick Toney, (Jackson) Wenstrom, we did some good things. But overall, in general, we’ve just got to play better. Especially that first game, with some defensive miscues, (and) there were some things that weren’t errors which were probably more mental mistakes that cost us a run or two. All in all, it was a good weekend, we won three games, scored some runs, but we’ve got to continue to improve and get better.”
Full Opening Statement from Coach Mac
https://fausports.com/showcase/embed.aspx?Archive=3462
The Turning Point – Game One
The Owls got on the board first, but Binghamton had a 2-1 lead after runs in the fourth and fifth. In the bottom of the fifth, FAU plated four, on a BJ Murray solo home run, an Alex Arauz RBI single and two-run Jackson Wenstrom single.
The Finish – Game One
The Owls scored twice more in each of the sixth and seventh (two unearned, and two on singles by Wenstrom and Mitchell Hartigan), and Adrien Reese and Michael Schuler shut the door on the Bearcats.
The Arms – Game One
· Corey Ireson drew the start, going 4 2/3 and allowing two unearned runs
· The win, for the second time this year in relief, went to Reese (2-0). He struck out four and gave up two runs in 2 1/3
· Schuler worked around baserunners in each of his two scoreless innings
The Bats – Game One
· Wenstrom knocked in his first three RBI as an Owl
· Wilfredo Alvarez reached base five times in the win
· With two-hit games were Francisco Urbaez, Murray and Hartigan; Murray and Hartigan both scored twice
· The Owls walked 10 times and were hit by two pitches
The Turning Point – Game Two
Similar to game one, FAU took the early lead (a bases-loaded walk to Andru Summerall) before BU tied it, at 1-1 in the fourth. Wenstrom tattooed a shot over the rightfield scoreboard, a three-run homer, for a 4-1 lead in the home half of the fourth, and after BU cut it to 4-3, FAU scored five while batting around in the sixth (the big blow, another three-run shot, this time came courtesy of Nicholas Toney).
The Finish – Game Two
Bobby Morgensen homered in the seventh, to about the same exact spot as Wenstrom’s, and Urbaez singled in the final run in the eighth (sandwiched around a BU run in the eighth as well). Four FAU relievers closed things out behind freshman starter Dante Visconti, who earned his first collegiate win.
The Arms – Game Two
· Visconti (1-0) threw five innings of two-run baseball, striking out four
· After BU cut it to 4-3 in the sixth and had runners on the corners, Mike Entenza got a strikeout to keep the tying run at third, then dealt a perfect seventh on 13 pitches
· Brycen Allen made his debut and struck out his first hitter as an Owl
· Hartigan came on and put a bow on the weekend with a 1-2-3 ninth
The Bats – Game Two
· Morgensen, Toney and Wenstrom all homered and combined to go 7-for-14 with six runs scored and seven RBI
· In the three-hole, Morgensen was 3-for-5 with two runs scored and an RBI
· Toney and Wenstrom each had two hits, scored two runs, and knocked in three
· For Toney, it was his first collegiate home run; for Wenstrom, his first as an Owl
· The Owls added 11 more walks in the finale to total 21 free passes on the day and 29 on the weekend
· All nine Owls reached in both Sunday games
· The quintet of Urbaez, Alvarez, Morgensen, Summerall and Hartigan have reached base in all seven FAU games this year. Urbaez has at least one hit in all seven games, Hartigan has five multi-hit games, and Alvarez’s reached-base streak – dating back to last year – has now reached 15 games in a row
What’s Next
The Owls will not have a midweek upcoming, instead traveling for the first time in 2020 for three games next weekend in Tallahassee. On Friday, it’s a doubleheader against Texas Tech (1 p.m.) and Florida State (6 p.m.); on Saturday, it’s FAU vs. FSU at 2 p.m.
– 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 4-0 in bowl games, the most recent being a 52-28 victory over SMU in the 2019 Cheribundi 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, visitwww.fau.edu.
