MEDIA CONTACT: Jonathan Fraysure
561-430-7148, jfraysur@fau.edu
FAU Baseball Posts Second Straight Win, Will Go For Sweep Sunday
BOCA RATON, Fla. – (March 2, 2019) – For the second straight day, multiple home runs and, on Saturday, clutch defense, put the Florida Atlantic University baseball team a Sunday win away from a sweep of visiting Monmouth, topping the Hawks in the middle game, 11-4.
Quotable
Head Coach John McCormack:
“Offense did a good job, hit some balls hard, some really good baseball stuff on the offense … We won, there were some really good things. (Jacob) Josey got his first start, I thought he played really well. Bobby Morgensen got a chance to get out of rightfield, both him and Diamond (Johnson) responded. I thought Diamond had a nice game, and Bobby of course did a nice job.”
The Turning Point
For just the third time of this new season, the Owls (5-6) got on the board first, actually scoring in each of their first three at-bats. In the first, it was an Andru Summerall two-run home run; a two-out RBI single by Gunnar Lambert made it 3-0 in the second; and after Monmouth (1-7) scored twice in the third, the Owls recovered with two of their own, on back-to-back run-scoring singles by Jacob Josey and Diamond Johnson.
The Finish
FAU went up 7-2 when Francisco Urbaez added a two-run shot of his own in the fifth, but Monmouth didn’t go away quietly. Two more runs in the visiting seventh made it 7-4, and there were two on and two out. With the tying run at the plate, Vince Coletti induced a flyout, and a four-spot by the Owls’ offense in the bottom half made for a more comfortable margin. Those runs came on a Bobby Morgensen solo home run, a RBI double by Johnson, a wild pitch, and an Eric Rivera sac fly.
The Arms/The Gloves
· Ryan Sandberg didn’t go deep in his start, but a nifty no-look behind-the-back catch off a liner up the middle snuffed out a rally in the third
· Picking up the win in relief with 2 1/3 scoreless innings was Jon Jon Kostantis (1-0), his first collegiate decision
· Throwing the last two innings, also not giving up a run, was fellow freshman Michael Schuler
· Urbaez, at second base, had a web gem of a diving play in the eighth
· Catcher Pedro Pages had both a caught stealing of a runner, and a pick off of another, at first base
· The game ended on a tremendous 5-4 defensive play by B.J. Murray. With the bases loaded, he fielded a hard shot, stepped on the third base bag and threw to second for the double play
The Bats
· Summerall, Morgensen and Urbaez all notched their second home runs of 2019
· The bottom third of the lineup – Urbaez, Josey and Johnson – each reached three times
· Urbaez was 3-for-4 with two singles, the home run, three runs scored and two RBI; Josey got the first two hits and RBI of his FAU career, going 2-for-3 with two singles, a walk, two runs scored and an RBI; and Johnson was 2-for-3 with a single, double, a walk, a run, an RBI and a stolen base
· Morgensen was on three times as well, with two walks, scoring three times
· Summerall added a double and sits at a .349 batting average through 11 games this year, with a .440 OBP
· The team’s 11 runs and 15 hits are both new season highs
What’s Next
The finale Sunday comes at high noon, Mike Ruff taking the ball for the Owls against Monmouth’s Tyler Ksiazek. Purchase tickets 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.
