MEDIA CONTACT: Jonathan Fraysure jfraysur@fau.edu
BOCA RATON, Fla. – (March 10, 2019) – A classic pitcher’s duel saw Mike Ruff and the Florida Atlantic University baseball team come out victorious Sunday, 2-1, to wrap a three-game sweep of Northeastern at FAU Baseball Stadium.
Quotable
Head Coach John McCormack:
“Fantastic game today. Those close games, it’s really important for us to get a win like this going into conference play, and of course, with the two midweek games before that. It was nice: the pitching, (Mike) Ruff goes seven, (Vince) Coletti goes one, (Zach) Schneider puts it away. And we did enough offensively. Great way to cap off the weekend, really proud of the guys. Certainly hope this is a springboard to get us rolling.”
The Turning Point
Ian Fair of Northeastern (5-9) led off the game with a solo home run, but Ruff retired the next 13 in a row, into the fifth, and stranded at least a runner in each of his last three innings. The two he left on in the seventh proved to be vital, as the FAU (9-7) offense finally capitalized in the bottom half. Mitchell Hartigan led off with a double and was sacrificed successfully to third by Jacob Josey. A liner up the middle by Eric Rivera tied it, and an out later, he came all the way around from first on Francisco Urbaez’s double into the leftfield corner to give the Owls a 2-1 lead.
The Finish
Vince Coletti came on to pitch the eighth, and the leadoff batter reached against him on a single. But with one out, Pedro Pages blocked a pitch in the dirt and fired a strike to retire that baserunner, and Coletti struck out the NU batter on the very next pitch. There was less drama in the ninth, as Zach Schneider recorded his second save in as many days with, again, a 1-2-3 frame.
The Arms
· Ruff was fantastic after the leadoff homer. A double snapped his streak, but he got the next two batters in the fifth; he allowed just a two-out single in the sixth but then induced a groundout with the runner at second; and with two on and two out in the seventh, got another groundout to keep it a 1-0 game
· Needing just 86 pitches, the junior righthander scattered four hits, struck out five and did not walk a batter
· Coletti picked up the hold and Schneider the save
· After a 10-pitch effort Saturday, Schneider only dealt 16 offerings in the finale, getting a groundout and two strikeouts to close out the sweep
The Bats
· Rivera continues to be red-hot, notching his fifth straight multi-hit game (going 2-for-4) and knocking in the tying run while scoring the winning run
· Urbaez had two hits in three at-bats, plus a walk, and picked up his first game-winning RBI as an Owl
· Jared DeSantolo reached three times and now has a six-game hitting streak
· For Hartigan, it was his first collegiate extra-base hit
What’s Next
The Owls stay home for five more, including a two-game set this midweek hosting Quinnipiac. Gametimes are 6:30 p.m. on both Tuesday and Wednesday. Get 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.
