BOCA RATON, Fla. – The Florida Atlantic University baseball team fell by a final score of 7-1 at home against Miami on Wednesday night. The Owls limited a high-powered Hurricanes’ offense to just two hits through six innings before the visitors broke it open with six runs on seven hits in the final three frames.
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“We were behind in a lot of counts, and we made some plays to get us out of some innings,” noted Head Coach John McCormack. “I thought the guys had energy, we played hard. We just couldn’t capitalize. Had some missed opportunities on both offense and defense.”
THE BEGINNING
The Hurricanes loaded the bases in the top of the first with one hit and three walks but could only come away with one run against FAU starter Nicholas Del Prado. The Owls would tie the game in the fourth when Jackson Ross doubled into the right field corner to score Nolan Schanuel from first base.
THE TURNING POINT
The game remained tied until the seventh when Miami collected three straight one-out singles to once again load the bases against reliver Evan Waterbor. This time, the Canes’ Maxwell Romero hit a high pop up to second base. The infield fly rule was called as a gust of wind took it out of reach of FAU’s Steven Loden. The runner from third base advanced at his own risk to put the visitors ahead 2-1. Jacob Burke then lined a triple into the right field corner to score two more.
After Miami added another in the eighth, the Owls had a golden opportunity to tie the game or, at the very least, cut into the deficit in the bottom of the inning. Gabriel Rincones, Jr. came to the plate with the bases loaded and one out. Miami brought in hard-throwing closer Andrew Walters to counter. After a 12-pitch at-bat, Rincones popped out to left. Walters then overpowered Schanuel for a strikeout on three pitches to get out of the jam with no damage done.
THE FINISH
Romero launched a two-run homer in the ninth off Dante Visconti to stretch the Hurricane lead to 7-1. The Owls got a two-out walk off Walters in the bottom of the inning before another strikeout ended the game.
THE ARMS
- Del Prado started and went 3.1 before giving way to the bullpen. He allowed just one hit and one run but walked six of the 11 batters he faced
- Marc DeGusipe gave up just one hit and no runs in 2.2. He struck out two and walked two.
- Waterbor, Brock Helverson, and Visconti pitched one inning each. Waterbor took the loss to fall to 1-2
THE BATS
- The offense generated just four hits, two of which came off the bat of Jackson Ross
- Dylan Goldstein and Jalen DeBose recorded the other two base hits
- Schanuel reached on an error in the fourth inning to extend his reached-base streak to 22 games
WHAT’S NEXT
The Owls return to C-USA competition on Friday night against UTSA. First pitch at the FAU Baseball Stadium is scheduled for 6:30 pm.
TICKETS
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