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Owls Head to Jacksonville
3/21/2006 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 21, 2006
In its first season at the Division I level and in the Atlantic Sun Conference, the University of North Florida's baseball team holds a 13-11, 6-3 A-Sun record and will host Florida Atlantic University in a three-game conference series this weekend in Jacksonville, FL. The first meeting between the two team will occur on Friday at 7 p.m. On Saturday and Sunday the games are slated for 1 p.m.
The Owls (12-12, 2-4 A-Sun) are coming off of a 4-1 week after two midweek wins and a series win over Kennesaw State University. The team's 42 hits in the series are the most this season and raised the team's batting average .017 points. Head coach Kevin Cooney picked up his 800th career victory with an 8-7 win over Columbia on Wednesday.
For the week, Ovy Ramirez led the team with a .474 batting average with eight RBI. He picked up his first two home runs of the season in Saturday's doubleheader. In the three game series with KSU, he had multiple hits in each game and had a career-high four RBI in the series finale.
The junior now holds a .375 batting average as he has taken over the job at first base due to injuries on the team. Ramirez is third in the league with 23 RBI.
The pitching rotation for the Owls will look the same for the fourth straight week with Mickey Storey, Chris Salberg and Brandon Cooney making starts. Storey threw the team's first complete game of the season against KSU last week and lowered his ERA to 3.74. The sophomore holds a 3-3 record and leads the A-Sun with 57 strikeouts in 45.2 innings.
A left-hander with a 2-4 record, Salberg is third in the conference with 46 strikeouts in 39 innings. He is holding opponents to a .269 batting average.
Brandon Cooney will make his fourth start of the season this weekend. The junior holds a 1-2 record and a 4.39 ERA.
With an injury plagued team, Mike Crotta has found himself in the closer's role and has taken advantage of the opportunity. The junior picked up a win and a save last week to raise his save total to three. He has not allowed a run in his last seven outings (6 2/3 innings) and has struck out 12.
The Ospreys have been very streaky this season and have won as many as five games in a row. During that run, the team swept UCF and defeated another Florida school, USF, to improve to 6-3. In conference play, UNF took two-of-three games from the preseason no.2 team, Stetson in DeLand and swept Campbell at home. Last weekend on the road at East Tennessee State, the squad dropped the first two games before taking game three 18-2. The team currently stands in third in the conference but is ineligible for the conference tournament due to reclassification.
The pitching staff holds the second best ERA in the A-Sun with a 3.83 ERA. In three starts this season, Brad Johnson holds a 2-1 record with a 1.98 ERA. He has been the no.3 starter the last two weekends for the Ospreys. He has followed Jeremy Papelbon and Ryan Amason in the rotation. Jeremy Papelbon holds the 5th best ERA in the A-Sun at 2.41 and has a 2-1 record. His 31 strikeouts are second behind Amason's 34 in 35.1 innings. Amason holds a 3-1 record and 4.58 ERA.
Closer Josh Papelbon, brother of Jeremy Papelbon, broke the school record for saves earlier this year. He has four saves in 13 appearances.
Fans can follow the games via gametracker by visiting www.fausports.com and clicking on the link on the baseball schedule page.
Players Mentioned
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