BILOXI, Miss. – (May 23, 2019) – Mike Ruff pitched into the eighth inning, allowing just three hits and a run while striking out 11, and his offense did enough in pushing Florida Atlantic University baseball to a 6-1 victory in the team’s second game at The First 2019 C-USA Baseball Championship.
Quotable
Head Coach John McCormack:
“(Mike Ruff’s) best outing, I think, in an FAU uniform. Did a really nice job, had some huge strikeouts there in the early innings. We just couldn’t put (WKU) away … but I can’t say enough about Mike Ruff. We scored enough runs to make it stand. It’s good to get a win and be able to get a day off tomorrow.”
The Turning Point
Ruff started out his night by retiring the first six batters he faced, four by punchout, while the FAU (39-18) offense staked him to an early 3-0 lead. WKU (26-28-1) loaded the bases with one out in the third, and cut the deficit to two on a sacrifice fly, but a strikeout of Jake Sanford stranded two, and the Hilltoppers wouldn’t get any closer.
The Finish
Runs in the fifth, seventh and eighth for the Owls coincided with Ruff striking out batters in every single inning until walking a runner with one out in the eighth. Dylan O’Connell came on to get the next two, on a strikeout and fielder’s choice, and dealt a scoreless ninth as well, culminating in FAU’s 13th punchout for the 27th out of the game.
The Arms
· Ruff (6-4) gave up only two singles and two walks after the third
· His 11 strikeouts matched a career high
· O’Connell notched two more K’s and only allowed a walk in 1 2/3 scoreless
The Bats
· Both Pedro Pages and Mitchell Hartigan had three hits
· Hartigan scored three times, including the game’s first run, on a groundout in the second
· Wilfredo Alvarez’s first home run of the season came in that same frame
· After a Bobby Morgensen double, Hartigan brought him in with a double of his own, in the third
· The other three Owl runs came on an error, and two bases-loaded walks
· Besides 13 hits, FAU batters drew 10 walks, were hit by four pitches and only struck out once
What’s Next
The Owls will have Friday off with their 2-0 mark, and will await the surviving team in a rematch against either WKU or UTSA on Saturday. It will be the second game of the day, scheduled for a 1:30 p.m. Eastern start.
– 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.
