BOCA RATON, Fla. – (April 28, 2019) – The Florida Atlantic University baseball team was three outs away from falling prey to a three-game sweep at the hands of Old Dominion at the Owls’ home stadium, losing to the Monarchs, 7-1, heading into the bottom of the ninth. Twenty-nine minutes and eleven batters later, and for the second time in the inning, Pedro Pages came through with a single, with his walkoff scoring two to finish off a seven-run final-inning rally for an improbable 8-7 comeback win on Sunday afternoon.
Quotable
Head Coach John McCormack:
“We won. Very improbable victory … It was some really good at-bats, and I had thought during the game, for the most part we had good at-bats. And (in the ninth), the balls had fallen, the balls got through the infield. The guys stuck with it, we got enough outs and we ended up getting the ‘W.’ It’s a huge win for our program, happy for the guys.”
The Turning Point
From the time FAU (29-14, 15-6 Conference USA) tied it in the fourth, until heading to the plate for their final at-bat, Old Dominion (26-17, 9-12 C-USA) scored six unanswered runs, including three in the eighth. Up 7-1, ODU starter Ryne Moore entered the ninth having posted three straight 1-2-3 innings, retiring 11 in a row and 14 of 15, and came back out looking for the complete game victory.
The Finish
The ninth began when Pages hit a hard shot down the leftfield line, fielded by ODU’s third baseman Bryce Windham on a dive. But his throw bounced and got past first, allowing Pages to reach second on the hit and error. Francisco Urbaez rapped a clean single through the left side, and Mitchell Hartigan followed by turning on a 2-0 pitch deep to right for a three-run homer. Still, ODU led 7-4, with the bases empty.
The Monarchs turned to lefthanded reliever Isaiah Nelson, and Richie Nizza greeted him with a pinch-hit single. After a fielder’s choice, another new pitcher, Morgan Maguire, hit Eric Rivera with the first pitch he would offer, and then he walked Andru Summerall on a 3-2 pitch to load the bases. Joe Montes lined a single to deep right to score two, cutting it to 7-6 with one out.
Maguire would hit another Owl, Bobby Morgensen, loading the bases and necessitating another pitching change. Pages would come up for the second time in the inning, against Connor Muly, and on a 3-2 count, he lined this single up the middle to score two and send the Owls out of the dugout in celebration.
The Arms
· In his first collegiate start, Jacob Josey was very good, allowing just a run on five hits in four innings of work. He struck out a career-best four in his longest outing
· Hunter Cooley (3-3) picked up the win after a six-pitch, 1-2-3 top of the ninth. He got a lineout and two groundouts to send it to the victorious bottom half
The Bats
· Hartigan set a career high with four RBI. He had an infield single to knock in the Owls’ run in the fourth, plus the ninth-inning shot, his fifth of the year
· Pages went 4-for-5, including the two-hit ninth. He has reached base in 24 consecutive games
· Rivera has been on base in 19 straight after a 2-for-4 game; Morgensen extended his mark to 17 in a row and has an eight-game hitting streak as well
· The Owls had six hits in the ninth after Moore scattered eight hits in the previous eight innings, all singles
What’s Next
The Owls will next host Florida Gulf Coast this Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m. Just five home games remain on the regular season schedule, and none again until May 14. Buy tickets now for any or all of these games 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.
