Florida Atlantic University Athletics
Florida Atlantic
Louisiana
Florida Atlantic Routs Louisiana-Lafayette 13-6
3/14/2008 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 14, 2008
BOCA RATON, FL - Mickey Storey pitched six strong innings to lead Florida Atlantic over reigning Sun Belt Conference Champions Louisiana-Lafayette 13-6 on Friday.
Palm Beach College transfer Jeremy Griffiths hit a go-ahead homerun, William Block doubled twice and Mike McKenna drove in four runs.
Florida Atlantic touched up the league's preseason pitcher of the year, Danny Farquhar, for five runs and pounded the Louisiana-Lafayette relief corps for eight more.
The Cajun's (5-10; 0-4 SBC) dropped to 0-4 in conference play for the first time since 1976.
Storey (1-0) fanned six in a game that was close before the FAU offense broke it open in the late innings.
Florida Atlantic (9-5; 2-0 SBC) has won 9-of-11.
Both teams manufactured early runs without the benefit of an RBI hit. In the bottom of the second inning Travis Ozga reached on a two-base error and two batters later trotted home to tie the score at one after a called balk on Farquhar.
Louisiana-Lafayette had initiated the scoring in the top half of the second inning on a sacrifice fly by Jordan Poirrer, plating Matt Hicks who had doubled to lead off the frame.
McKenna, an All-America candidate, gave the Owls a 2-1 advantage in the third on an RBI groundout after Daniel Cook reached safely on a leadoff single and advanced to third on the first of two doubles by Block.
Block has now hit safely in 11 straight games and McKenna raised his season RBI total to 23.
The Cajuns answered back in the top half of the fifth, making the most of a Cook fielding error with two outs, extending the inning for Nolan Glisclair who took the first pitch he saw from Storey over the leftfield fence. The two-run homer, his second of the year, pushed the score back into Louisiana-Lafayette's favor 3-2.
Griffiths, not only made a terrific tumbling catch of a deep foul ball down the leftfield line early in the game, but was a key contributor offensively, hitting a two-run opposite field homerun in the bottom of the sixth to immediately give FAU its one-run lead back, 4-3.
Storey allowed just one earned run through six complete, giving-way to left-handed junior Adam Morrison in the seventh leading 4-3. Morrison went the rest of the way to earn his first save.
Storey lowered his season's ERA to 1.96 through four appearances and three starts.
FAU added eight insurance runs off two Cajun relievers in the seventh and eighth innings to assure Storey of his first win. For the second straight game it was Ozga coming through with a clutch two-out single. His two RBI hit in the seventh made the score 8-3. McKenna and Nick Arata added homeruns in the eighth to put it out of reach.
