Florida Atlantic University Athletics
Baseball Heads to Middle Tennessee
5/1/2007 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 1, 2007
This weekend, Florida Atlantic University will make its final regular season road trip in conference play when it visits Middle Tennessee for a three-game Sun Belt series. Fans can watch Saturday's 4 p.m. et game on CSS.
FAU (28-17, 10-14 SBC) won its conference series last weekend and moved into sole position of eighth place in the conference race. Both Mike McKenna and Robbie Widlansky hit over .500 for the weekend and are now hitting over .400 for the season.
William Block also had a productive weekend with six RBI, including two home runs. In the last six games Block has hit four homers to raise his season total to a team-leading 12. Four players now have at least 10 homers on the season which makes FAU one of only two teams that can claim that feat.
Joel Schmal is expected to start Friday night's contest. It will be the left-hander's third start this season. Against USA he lasted 7 1/3 innings and improved to 3-0 on the year.
The duo of Chris Salberg and Mike Obradovich are the strikeout leaders in the conference. Salberg was ranked ninth in the country last week in strikeouts per nine innings and 15th in total strikeouts to lead a pitching staff that was second in the nation in strikeouts per nine innings with 9.3.
Middle Tennessee enters after having nine days off. The team's last contest was a 12-9 win over Belmont on April 25.
The Blue Raider offense is hitting .300 as a team and is led by Wayne Kendrick's .389 batting average which is fifth in the conference. Bishop Rawley is second in the SBC with 13 home runs and has accumulated 46 RBI. In the last game against Belmont he belted three homers.
The starting rotation for Middle Tennessee is expected to be right-handers Brad Robinson and Matt Scott on Friday and Saturday. Robinson holds a 5-1 record with a 4.03 ERA. He leads the team with 49 strikeouts in 58 innings. Scott stands at 3-4 on the year with a 4.94 ERA. Teams are batting .274 against Scott and have struck out 34 times.
Closer Brett Reilly has five saves on the year with a 4-1 record and is holding opponents to a .182 batting average. In conference play he leads the league with a 1.55 ERA with three saves in 29 innings.
Game times are set for 7 p.m. et on Friday with Saturday's televised contest to air at 4 p.m. et. The Sunday finale will get underway at 1:30 p.m. Fans can follow game action by clicking on the gametracker link at www.fausports.com.
