Florida Atlantic University Athletics
Florida Atlantic
Middle Tennessee
Florida Atlantic Sweeps Middle Tennessee State
3/23/2008 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 23, 2008
BOCA RATON, FL - Florida Atlantic rallied to score seven runs moments before heavy rain and thunderstorms washed out the late innings of Sunday's series finale between the Owls and Middle Tennessee State, giving FAU a 10-7 victory and a series sweep.
Florida Atlantic (16-6; 6-1 SBC) finished its ten-game homestand 9-1 and has won seven straight overall.
Middle Tennessee State (10-7-1; 3-5 SBC), NCAA Regional qualifiers five times in a six year span from 2000-2005, had began the season 7-1-1 overall.
Blue Raiders first baseman Rawley Bishop gave MTST its first lead of the series in the early stages of Sunday's game, hitting an RBI single the top of the first inning and adding a two-out, two-run homer in the third.
Mike McKenna hit his league-leading 13th home run on the first pitch of FAU's fourth inning, which made the score 3-1. McKenna went 12-for-22 (.545 BA) with seven home runs and 19 RBI in six games this week. McKenna's numbers were even more impressive during the homestand, homering nine times in 10 games driving in 26 runs and totaling 46 bases.
With the score 5-1 in the top of the fifth Adam Morrison was lifted before he faced Bishop a third time. Morrison struck out four and yielded five runs in four innings, not factoring into the decision thanks to FAU's timely comeback.
Jordan Alvis (2-1) was summoned from the bullpen to protect a 7-3 MTST lead in the sixth. Nick Arata promptly took a 3-0 pitch from Alvis over the scoreboard in right field. Arata's home run, his second of the series, was a three-run shot that cut the lead to one, 7-6.
Moments later, just as rain started sending a modest Easter afternoon crowd scattering for cover, the Owls took the lead on a two-run throwing error on shortstop Tyler Burnett which scored Troy Bubley and Nick Criaris who had both walked.
Arata's home run, Burnett's gift and a Travis Ozga RBI sacrifice fly were all part of a seven-run FAU sixth inning that put the Owls in front 10-7.
Rain forced the game to be called in the top half of the seventh, making a winner out of freshman Glen Troyanowski (3-0) who was effective in relief of lefty's Morrison and Nick Melendres.
The Owls play a key conference road series next weekend at Louisiana-Monroe, a series that should determine who stakes claim to the top spot in the league standings after one full month of the SBC's three-month season.
