GAINESVILLE, Fla. – (April 23, 2019) – Behind 5-1, 7-4, and then 11-9 going into the ninth, the No. 28 Florida Atlantic University baseball team pulled off a remarkable comeback win with four runs in their final at-bat Tuesday night over Florida, 13-11, in a game featuring those 24 runs and 34 hits.
Quotable
Head Coach John McCormack:
“Wow, what a game. The team was very resilient tonight. They were into the game, from the time we got off the bus, they were ready to go. Very proud of them. We came out and scored one, and then we were down four (5-1), down three (7-4), and then down two, but we just kept pounding back. Pitchers did enough and we come away with the victory. Pedro (Pages) gets the big hit in the top of the ninth, and I can’t say enough about Joe Montes’ triple. I never saw them overturning that call. Zach (Schneider) came in and nailed it down, just a great win on the road. Fantastic job by everybody, a lot of guys helped out, fantastic win by the team.”
The Turning Point – The First One
FAU (28-12) got on the board first, in the first, but Florida (26-17) scored five times in the second, four on an Austin Langworthy grand slam. Though the Owls plated three in the fourth, (none on a hit: a bases-loaded balk, a wild pitch and a passed ball) to cut it to 5-4, another UF homer pushed the Gators back out by three the next half-inning. Then, in the FAU fifth, Joe Montes singled, and back-to-back walks were issued to Andru Summerall and Pedro Pages to load the bases for Bobby Morgensen, immediately notching the game’s second grand slam on the very first pitch, a moon shot over the rightfield scoreboard, and an 8-7 Owl lead.
The Turning Point – The Second One
UF tied it in the fifth, and moved back ahead by two in the seventh, 10-8. Each team scored in their half of the eighth, still making it a two-run Florida lead heading into the final inning.
The Finish
The Owl ninth started with a walk to Gunnar Lambert, who went to second on defensive indifference. Pinch-hitter Richie Nizza then rapped a single through the left side, followed by an Eric Rivera sac fly to cut it to one. With Nizza at first, Montes hit a bullet to the right-centerfield alley, with Nizza scoring easily to tie things at 11-11. Montes would be called out trying to stretch it into a triple, but instant replay overturned the call, putting him at third with one out. UF pitching would then load the bases, with Francisco Urbaez hit by a pitch and Summerall walked. Three pitches later, Pedro Pages lined a single to left to score two, the biggest FAU lead of the night. Zach Schneider, who had come on in the eighth, walked the leadoff hitter in the bottom half, but retired the next three, two on strikeouts, to earn the win.
The Arms / The Gloves
· After UF took a 5-1 lead, Ryan Sandberg put a temporary band-aid on it, with a scoreless third inning of work
· In the fourth, Eric Keating got a strikeout and groundout to strand three
· Michael Schuler dealt the only 1-2-3 inning of the night for Owls’ pitching, in the sixth, after holding the Gators to a run in the fifth
· A double play in the seventh, though it scored a run, helped Vince Coletti limit the damage in the inning
· Schneider (3-1) came on in the eighth, pitching 1 2/3 innings in total with three total K’s
· Pages cut down two runners trying to steal in the early innings, and two dynamite diving stops at the hot corner by Montes saved extra-base hits and runs
The Bats
· Morgensen notched an FAU-high five RBI
· He was one of four Owls with two hits, along with Montes, Urbaez and Summerall
· Urbaez also walked once and was hit by a pitch twice, scoring three times
· Montes, Pages (who walked three times) and Morgensen all scored twice. Both Montes and Morgensen walked once too, and Summerall twice
· Every Owl that came to the plate, including the pinch-hitter Nizza, reached base
· In addition to 13 hits, the Owls drew 11 walks, had the two HBP of Urbaez, the wild pitch, balk and two passed balls
What’s Next
The Owls return home after this five-game road trip, Friday for the first of three against Old Dominion at FAU Baseball Stadium. 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.
