Florida Atlantic University Athletics
Florida Atlantic
Rutgers
Florida Atlantic Downs BIG EAST Champs
3/18/2008 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 18, 2008
BOCA RATON, FL - Florida Atlantic collected its fourth win in five days, defeating Rutgers 10-1 Tuesday night. Mike McKenna and Travis Ozga hit no-doubt home runs to right field as part of a three-run FAU fifth inning that broke the game open.
Florida Atlantic (12-6) has gone 12-3 since being swept in its season-opening series with then-fifth-ranked North Carolina.
Every regular in the FAU lineup recorded a hit. The Owls scored nine or more runs for the 10th time in 18 games this season.
Rutgers (5-9), the defending BIG EAST Champions, returns home to face St. John's this weekend to open up its 2008 conference schedule.
William Block hit safely for the 15th-straight game and Nick Criaris went 3-for-3 to raise his batting average to .368.
Florida Atlantic strung together three hits to push in a run in the first inning and Tom Hatcher's RBI single in the third made the score 2-0. The early runs came in support of starter Adam Morrison, who turned in another strong pitching performance for long-time FAU head coach Kevin Cooney.
Cooney opted to lift Morrison with the Owls still leading by two runs in the top of the fifth. A pair of hits had put runners on second and third, and despite Morrison striking out Donny Callahan for the second out of the inning, freshman Glen Troyanowski was called upon for the sixth time this season in relief.
Troyanowski (2-0) promptly struck out Matt Myerkoff on five pitches to end the threat. Troyanowksi went on to work a perfect sixth and would poach the win from Morrison, improving to 2-0 and lowering his season's ERA to 1.69 through seven appearances.
The middle of the FAU lineup got the best of Rutgers' starter Jon McCue (1-1) in the bottom of the fifth, with both McKenna and Travis Ozga hitting no-doubt home runs off McCue deep to right field.
McKenna went 3-for-5 with three RBI. A strong candidate for All-America honors, McKenna has totaled a league-leading nine home runs and 32 RBI in just 18 games this season.
Left-handed reliever Nick Melendres struck out the side for FAU in the top of the ninth.
