Florida Atlantic University Athletics
Florida Atlantic
NYIT
Florida Atlantic Stunned By NYIT, 10-7
4/18/2008 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 18, 2008
OLD WESTBURY, NY - The New York Institute of Technology hit a season-high three home runs, upsetting visiting Florida Atlantic University 10-7 Friday. It was the first of four non-conference games scheduled this weekend between the two clubs on the NYIT campus.
NYIT (10-17-1), an NCAA Division I Independent since 1981, entered the game hitting just .252 as a team.
Florida Atlantic (21-14) trailed 4-1 early on and fell to 4-7 on the road.
NYIT singled six times off FAU starter Mickey Storey (2-4) in the first two innings, four on groundballs that rolled past FAU infielders and another on an attempted bunt-sacrifice.
Storey gave up a season-high 14 hits (10 singles), surrendering nine runs in seven innings.
The Bears pushed in three runs after loading up the bases in the second. An RBI groundout tied the score at one and Brian Smith's two-out single up the middle put NYIT up 3-1.
With FAU trailing 4-2 in the fourth, David Wilson evened the game at four with his second home run of the season. Wilson took a 1-0 pitch off freshman starter Preston Wasman (2-1) out to right centerfield, tagging the back of the soccer field's press box which sits some 30-feet above the right field fence.
NYIT approached its season-high in hits in just five-plus innings, racking up 12 against Storey by the end of the sixth. Joe Lucente hit a two-run homer in the fifth and added another two-run shot in the seventh to give the Bears a three-run advantage, 9-6, heading into the eighth.
A sacrifice fly by Effrey Valdez in the ninth gave NYIT an insurance run and the Bears' defense turned a double-play in the top of the ninth to end it. Valdez went 2-for-4, with a home run and two RBI.
New York native Mike McKenna went 3-for-5 for FAU.
GAME NOTES: Weather conditions were ideal Friday afternoon, sunny with temperatures in the 70's... Friday's game was FAU's first-ever at NYIT... The two teams had played four previous games, all in Boca Raton... NYIT won twice at FAU in both school's inaugural season of baseball, 1981 ... More recently FAU defeated NYIT twice in 2003 when FAU was ranked No. 11.
