Florida Atlantic University Athletics
Florida Atlantic
Middle Tennessee
Baseball Ends with 7-4 Loss to Middle Tennessee
5/25/2007 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 25, 2007
Facing Middle Tennessee for the second time at the Sun Belt Tournament, Florida Atlantic University dropped a 7-4 contest on the third day of action. The Owls complete the season with a 36-22 record and had several players break FAU records.
"I wish things obviously gone better in the tournament but I don't think we played poorly," said FAU Head Coach Kevin Cooney.
Middle Tennessee starting pitcher Jordan Alvis issued a leadoff walk to start the game and FAU capitalized as Cook scored on a sacrifice fly. A William Block flare to the right side was caught by second baseman Wayne Kendrick with an over the shoulder catch and Cook made his way home for the first run of the contest.
The Blue Raiders took the lead in the third with three well-placed hits. Myles Ervin put a double over the third base bag and scored on a hit to shallow center field. The second run scored on a ball that landed on the left field line.
A day after having his 23-game hit streak snapped, Mike McKenna responded with his 16th homer of the year that went off the scoreboard in left field. The three-run homer gave the Owls a 4-2 advantage.
The MTSU pitching staff then took over and held an FAU team that finished the season batting .341 to one hit in the final six innings. The team batting average ties the 1999 team for the highest in school history.
Alvis earned the win after five innings to improve to 2-2 on the year. He allowed four runs on five hits. Nick Marrs pitched the final four innings for the Blue Raiders and only allowed one hit in four innings and struck out two.
The Blue Raiders put up four runs in the next two innings off Mike Obradovich who finishes the year with a 9-5 record. Four hits in the fifth inning was part of a three-run frame that gave a 6-4 lead that the Owls could never overcome.
Obradovich pitched 4 2/3 innings and allowed six runs on 10 hits and struck out three. Andrew Tomlin, Chris Eberhart, Brandon Cooney, Anthony Bradley and Justin Phillabaum all saw work out of the bullpen for the Owls.
At the plate Mike McKenna finished with a game-high three RBI and Tyler Stevens put two hits on the board for the FAU.
For the first time in FAU history, the team had two players finish the season with batting averages over .400. Robbie Widlansky broke the FAU record with a .430 batting average and Mike McKenna finished batting .414 in his junior campaign.
