Florida Atlantic University Athletics
Florida Atlantic
South Alabama
Beliveau Pitches Florida Atlantic to Series Win
4/6/2008 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 6, 2008
Mobile, AL - Jeff Beliveau tossed a shutout into the seventh as Florida Atlantic rebounded from its first five-game losing streak in ten years to win two-of-three against host South Alabama, taking Sunday's series finale 9-4. Mike McKenna hit his 14th home run and the FAU offense totaled 10 or more hits for the 22nd time in 29 games this season.
Florida Atlantic (18-11; 8-5 SBC) improves to 4-1 in head-to-head series against its five Sun Belt Conference opponents this season.
South Alabama (18-13; 6-6 SBC) had won five straight before dropping its final two games with FAU this weekend. Jaguar pitchers walked a season-high 11 batters Sunday.
Beliveau (2-2) was impressive, allowing just three hits in six and two thirds scoreless innings, eclipsing his longest outing of the season- a six-inning winning effort at Arkansas-Little Rock on March 9, which was the last time an FAU starter without the last name of Storey was credited with a win.
Fueled by a series of early walks by USA lefty starter Chris LaGrow, Florida Atlantic brought 11 batters to the plate in the first two innings. LaGrow's sixth walk with one out in the top of the third forced USA to quickly call upon reliever Kevin Nabors (2-3) out of the bullpen.
Nabors issued a leadoff walk to Alex Silversmith in the top of the fourth and Nick Arata's second double of the series finally brought in two of FAU's 11 base runners to that point, plating Silvermith and Colby Gratton, giving FAU a 2-0 lead.
Arata had two runs and two RBI Sunday, going 5-for-12 (.417 BA) with four RBI against USA pitching during the three-game series.
FAU loaded up the bases in the first, second and fifth innings. A wild pitch by Nabors with two outs in the fifth allowed Tom Hatcher to score from third and an RBI double by Jeremy Griffiths in the sixth extended the FAU advantage to 4-0.
Travis Ozga's two-run double in the eighth off USA sidewinder Greg Johnson made the score 7-0, seemingly putting the game out of reach until the homestanding Jaguars scored four in the bottom of the eighth to make the score 7-4.
McKenna's home run was a two-run shot off the advertising boards above the right field wall, which allowed freshman closer Glen Troyanowski to work with a five-run cushion in the ninth.
NOTES: Florida Atlantic is now 4-1 in head-to-head series versus Sun Belt Conference (def. UALR 1-0; def. ULL 2-1; def. MTST 3-0; lost to ULM 0-3; def. USA 2-1)... FAU had 34 hits in three games at USA, with four homers and six doubles... SS Nick Arata and 1B Travis Ozga led the club with five hits apiece vs. USA... LH Jeff Beliveau and LH Adam Morrison were dominant in their outings in Mobile, combining to throw 10 scoreless innings of four-hit ball... OF Colby Gratton went 3-for-7 (.429 BA) and scored three times against USA... Tom Hatcher stole his sixth base Sunday... FAU is now to 28-of-39 in stolen base attempts this season... FAU will play at #2 Miami Wednesday night before returning to Boca Raton to host Troy in a three-game weekend series beginning Friday, April 11... FAU is 2-5 during its current eight-game road trip.
