MEDIA CONTACT: Jonathan Fraysurejfraysur@fau.edu
BOCA RATON, Fla. – (March 12, 2019) – Four young Owl pitchers combined for a shutout, and four extra base hits supplied all the offense as the Florida Atlantic University baseball team notched their 10th victory of the season on Tuesday night, topping Quinnipiac, 7-0.
Quotable
Head Coach John McCormack:
“Good win. I thought after a good weekend, the guys had yesterday off, (but) came out ready to play. Got a zero and then scored two in the first, added on one in the second and then continued to add here and there. Good pitching, it was good to get Jon Jon (Kostantis) three innings, and (Michael) Schuler three innings, and (Jacob) Josey got two, and DO (Dylan O’Connell) got an inning there … It was a really good night for the Owls, end up with the victory (over) a good team over there.”
The Turning Point
The Owls (10-7) needed four hits in four innings to score seven runs, and the pitching made it hold up. With two outs in the first, Pedro Pages split two defenders in right-center with a two-run double; Jared DeSantolo blasted a solo shot on the second; Eric Rivera plated three, also with two outs, with a bomb in the fourth; and Francisco Urbaez added another towering home run to lead off the fifth. Through that time, two true freshmen, Jon Jon Kostantis and Michael Schuler, pitched five innings of five-hit, no-run baseball.
The Finish
Though the offense was held off the board, the FAU pitching didn’t let up. Schuler, redshirt sophomore Dylan O’Connell and another freshman, Jacob Josey, combined to retired 12 straight from the fifth through the eighth. A couple of Quinnipiac hits started the ninth, but Josey fielded a comebacker to start a 1-6-3 double play, and got a flyout to finalize the team’s second shutout of the season.
The Arms/The Gloves
· Kostantis (2-0), on a pitch count, picked up the win in his first collegiate start. He allowed just two hits and a walk in his three-inning stint
· He was helped out on a beautiful defensive play to strand runners on the corners in the second, by Urbaez at second base
· Schuler, like Kostantis, went a career-best three innings. He scattered three hits and struck out a new career high of four
· O’Connell needed just 10 pitches, with nine on the mark, for his 1-2-3 seventh
· Josey pitched the third straight scoreless outing to start his college career, and recorded his first collegiate strikeout
The Bats
· The home runs were the fourth of the season for both Rivera and Urbaez, and DeSantolo’s first of 2019
· Urbaez also walked three times, and Rivera twice; Urbaez and DeSantolo both scored two runs
· Pages and Bobby Morgensen each had two hits, specifically, the lefty-swinging Morgensen was 2-for-2 plus a walk against lefthanded pitching
· Five of the seven runs came with two outs, an even better percentage than the already-impressive RBI-with-two-out percentage (52.4) that the Owls had on the season coming into the game
What’s Next
The Owls and Bobcats get it on again on Wednesday, and it will be a 6:30 start once more. The starting pitching matchup will be Eric Keating against QU’s Joe Preciado. For tickets, call 1-866-FAU-OWLS.
