RUSTON, La. – The Florida Atlantic University baseball team was eliminated from the 2021 Air Force Reserve Conference USA Championship by Old Dominion in Saturday morning’s first game in Ruston.
Quotable
Head Coach John McCormack:
“I thought our guys were ready, you have to give Old Dominion credit, they played really, really well offensively, it’s a special ballclub. We scored five, but we had plenty of opportunities, we left (13) on base. In one of the (ODU) innings, they get runners on, they hit a three-run homer. We get the same thing, and fly out to centerfield. That’s the difference in the game, they were able to capitalize when we weren’t able to close out innings, and we couldn’t capitalize and they closed out the innings. We’ll get home and start working on next year.”
The Beginning
ODU (41-14) took the lead in the second on two home runs, a solo and a two-run shot. The Owls (32-25) climbed back in it two innings later, when Nolan Schanuel walked and Steven Loden doubled him to third. A sacrifice fly by Bobby Morgensen and RBI groundout by Caleb Pendleton cut it to a one-run deficit.
The Turning Point
Still down 3-2 in the fifth, the Owls put runners on the corners with two outs, but the Monarchs turned to the bullpen and got a groundout to keep the one-run edge. The ODU offense lengthened the lead with three in the fifth and two more in the sixth.
The Finish
A two-out rally in the seventh saw the Owls draw back-to-back walks (B.J. Murray and Schanuel), followed by back-to-back run-scoring singles (Loden and Morgensen). But a four-spot in the bottom half all but put it away for ODU.
In the Owl ninth, the first four reached via walk, with the fourth issued to Victor Castillo to force in a run, but the next three batters were retired to strand the bases loaded and end the ballgame.
The Arms
- Braden Ostrander (1-3) drew the start and took the loss
- Sam Drumheller came on next, and struck out three before running into trouble
The Bats
- The Owls were held to five hits. Loden had two, and raised his season average to .375. He also walked twice, scored a run and had an RBI
- Morgensen knocked in two runs; his RBI single in the seventh extended his hitting streak to 13, and streak of reaching base to 15 straight
- With a walk, Jackson Wenstrom also kept a reached-base streak alive, of 13 in a row
- Wilfredo Alvarez and Murray had the other two baseknocks; Murray walked twice to reach three times in the contest
- Schanuel scored three of the team’s five runs
What’s Next
If FAU’s 2021 season has come to a close, it would be with a 32-25 mark. While 11 Owl seniors were honored on Senior Day, only Alvarez, Morgensen, Dylan O’Connell and TJ Stuart will have completely exhausted their collegiate eligibility if the campaign has ended.
