Florida Atlantic University Athletics
Florida Atlantic
Rice
Rice Wins Battle of the Owls
2/23/2007 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Feb. 23, 2007
Florida Atlantic University hung with no. 6 Rice University throughout Friday afternoon's game before Rice's Joe Savery delivered a two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth to win the battle of the Owls 4-2.
"It was a great baseball game that was hard fought," said Head Coach Kevin Cooney. "I thought our hitters did a good job tonight against the best pitching that we have seen this season. I am proud of the way we competed."
Rice (7-4) jumped on the board in the second inning as Diego Seastrunk homered with a runner at third and one out. Seastrunk finished with two hits and two RBI for Rice.
The FAU offense once again answered as the team picked up hits in the third fourth and fifth innings and put runners into scoring position twice. In the sixth, Robbie Widlansky picked up one of his two hits, a double down the left line before moving over to third on a wild pitch. Mike McKenna picked up his team-leading 17th RBI of the year with a groundout to the shortstop to score Widlansky.
In the top of the seventh, FAU (9-1) tied the score as the first two hitters of the inning got hits off of Rice starter Chris Kelley. Down in the count 0-2, Daniel Cook started the inning with a single through the right side, Justin Martin followed with a single through the left side to put a runner into scoring position. After Justin Ferreira was called out trying to sacrifice bunt, a hustle play by Nick Arata tied the game. The shortstop evaded a double play by sliding in to first base as Cook made his way to third and home without a play at the plate to tie the game at two.
Rice threatened in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings and FAU thwarted the opportunity three times before the Savery home run in the ninth.
In the bottom of the seventh Tyler Henley led off with a triple. Mickey Storey struck out the next batter before exiting to give way to Chris Salberg. Henley would remain stranded at third as Salberg got a groundout and popout to end the scoring threat.
Storey finished the contest with five strikeouts in 6 1/3 innings and allowed two runs on eight hits. In the bottom of the eighth, Rice put together another scoring chance but stranded a runner at third as Salberg (0-1) got Danny Lehmann to fly out to right field. Salberg ended the first scoring threat of Rice in the bottom of the ninth after allowing a leadoff double to Henley. He moved to third on an error and then Rice tied to win the game on a squeeze play but FAU pitched out and caught Henley trying to steal home.
After a double by Jordan Dodson, Savery stepped to the plate and won the game for the sixth ranked team in the nation with a homer to centerfield off of FAU reliever Joel Schmal. .
Bobby Bramhall earned the win in relief to improve to 1-2. He worked three innings and did not allow a hit and struck out two.
The FAU offense was led by two-hit performances from Widlansky and Nick Arata.
The team will continue play in the Rice Invitational on Saturday at 5:30 pm et against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
