Florida Atlantic University Athletics
Florida Atlantic
FIU
Five Home Runs Lead to 17-9 Win
5/17/2007 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 17, 2007
William Block hit two of Florida Atlantic University's season-high five home runs as the Owls defeated Florida International University 17-9 on Thursday night. The win helps FAU edge closer to a Sun Belt Tournament berth.
"FIU is a good hitting team so we knew we had to come out and score some runs," said FAU Head Coach Kevin Cooney.
Block helped the FAU cause by tying a career high with four RBI and Justin Martin tied his career high with three hits. The Owls used 16 hits to score in all but two innings to improve to 33-20, 13-15 SBC. The Golden Panthers fall to 26-27, 12-15 SBC.
Florida Atlantic started on a tear as the first four batters reached base. After Daniel Cook led off with a walk, Daniel Bomback delivered his 14th homer of the year over the right field fence. After issuing two more walks, FIU starting pitcher Chris Allen gave up another run on a Travis Ozga ground out.
The Golden Panthers took their only lead of the game in the top of the second inning with four runs off FAU starter Joel Schmal. Schmal gave up a double and an RBI single to start the inning before recording one of his five strikeouts on the day. After walking Kevin Mirabel, shortstop Corey Lozano hit a three-run homer for the 4-3 FIU lead.
The lead diminished in the second as FAU posted six runs in the frame, three on Block's first homer of the night. In the last 14 games, the sophomore has nine homers. Mike McKenna picked up two RBI on a single as he extended his hit streak to 20 games. The FAU record is 24 held by Kevin Connacher in 1994.
With the lead, Schmal held the FIU bats to five runs on nine hits in his six innings of work to improve to 5-1 on the year. Anthony Bradley entered in relief and did not allow a baserunner in his 1 1/3 innings.
The FAU offense continued to punish the FIU pitchers as the team knocked starter Allen (5-5) out after one inning. Relief pitcher Chris Siebenaler lasted 1/3 of an inning as he gave up three runs before Jorge Ramos and Kyle Preshong completed the final 6 2/3 innings as they gave up seven earned runs on nine hits.
The second game of the series will take place on Friday at 4 p.m. at FAU Stadium with the regular season finale set for Saturday at 2 p.m.
