CORAL GABLES, Fla. – (April 3, 2019) – A five-run fifth inning was nearly all the Florida Atlantic University baseball team needed, towards a 6-4 Wednesday night win at Mark Light Field, to move to 20-9 on the season.
Quotable
Head Coach John McCormack:
“A good win tonight down in Miami, I am very proud of the way the guys played. They kept grinding and made the plays. The difference was the five runs we scored in the fifth inning. After Sunday’s 15-inning game, we had to use eight pitchers tonight and they did a good job. Nice win by the Owls.”
The Turning Point
Miami (18-11) had a slim 1-0 lead, and starter Slade Cecconi was nearly perfect through four, allowing just a single. But the fifth began with four straight FAU (20-9) singles, scoring two, and after an out, another to make it 3-1. With two outs, a bloop single brought in two more for a 5-1 lead.
The Finish
The Hurricanes chipped away with one in the fifth and another in the seventh. FAU pushed across an insurance run in the top of the ninth to make it a three-run advantage at 6-3. Miami made it interesting in the bottom half, scoring one and they had the tying run at the plate, but a popout ended it to give the Owls the road win.
The Arms
· The Owls threw eight pitchers on Wednesday
· Jon Jon Kostantis started and actually had the longest stint of the eight, two innings, allowing one run
· Vladimir Zavala and Eric Keating threw back-to-back scoreless; Keating (1-0) earned the win
· The run in the fifth was charged to Dylan Carter
· Jacob Josey pitched a scoreless sixth, and an unearned run came across against Michael Schuler in the seventh
· He was relieved mid-inning by Vince Coletti, who was key, leaving two runners on in a two-run game
· Coletti would pitch a scoreless eighth as well, helped out by a lineout double play
· Zach Schneider earned his seventh save, closing it out in the ninth
The Bats
· In that decisive fifth, Pedro Pages led off with a single as part of a 12-pitch at-bat, fouling off six pitches with two strikes. Bobby Morgensen followed with a base hit, and Joe Montes knocked in the Owls’ first run with a single as well
· Nicholas Toney was next, also with an RBI single, for the lead
· Two batters later, Eric Rivera doubled to score one, and with two outs, it was a Francisco Urbaez single to close out the scoring in the inning, bringing in both Toney and Rivera
· The insurance run came courtesy of Gunnar Lambert in the ninth, a two-out single down the line in left, plating Josey. Josey and Rivera both singled with two outs to extend the inning
· Rivera and Lambert each had two hits on the night
What’s Next
The Owls head to Charlotte this weekend for three against the 49ers, starting Friday. A week from that is a home set versus Louisiana Tech, April 12-14, and tickets can be had 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.
