SAN ANTONIO – (May 11, 2019) – The No. 24 Florida Atlantic University baseball team was held to a run on two hits as UTSA took the Saturday night matchup to even up the series by a 4-1 score.
Quotable
Head Coach John McCormack:
“Well, you have to give credit to their starter (Slater Foust), he pitched fantastic. Early in the game, we hit balls hard, we had some really good at-bats and the balls didn’t fall. And then we got frustrated, and did exactly what they wanted us to do: we swung at a lot of pitches early, made a lot of early outs, and got him deeper into the game. On the other side, three of their four runs was a walk, hit by pitch or error to get them on base. If you do that, you can’t win. Gotta be back at it tomorrow, certainly credit to UTSA today, but we’ve got to be better.”
The Turning Point
After having been no-hit for 4 1/3 innings, Francisco Urbaez turned on a 3-1 pitch in the fifth to start the scoring, but the FAU (33-17, 18-8 Conference USA) lead was short-lived. As McCormack alluded to, the bottom half began with a walk, followed by an RBI double two batters later to tie it. Then in the sixth, it started with a hit by pitch, and then two consecutive UTSA (24-26, 11-14 C-USA) batters got on with sacrifice bunts that turned into errors. A two-run single gave the Roadrunners the lead to stay.
The Finish
UTSA added another run in the seventh, and Foust continued to deal to make it hold up. After the Urbaez home run, and a Wilfredo Alvarez single that same inning, Foust issued only a one-out walk in the seventh, retiring 13 of the final 14 batters he faced in a complete-game victory.
The Arms
· Mike Ruff (5-4) pitched into the sixth, and took the loss even though he allowed just two earned runs on four hits
· Dylan O’Connell inherited two on with no one out in the sixth and retired the next three hitters. He would allow a run the next inning, but throw 1 2/3 innings of one-run ball
· Dylan Carter got out of a bases-loaded jam that same frame, and threw a scoreless eighth as well
The Bats
· Urbaez’s home run was his eighth of the year, and first since April 6
· With his single, Alvarez extended his hitting streak to eight games in a row. He had reached earlier on an error on a tough play at second
· Eric Rivera was robbed of a leadoff home run on the very first pitch of the game
What’s Next
Sunday’s finale and rubber game is set to start at 12:30 p.m. Eastern from Roadrunner Field. The starting pitching matchup is TBD on both sides. With that, this road trip will conclude, and the next home matchup is Tuesday night (May 14) against UCF. Get tickets now 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.
