Florida Atlantic University Athletics
Florida Atlantic
FIU
Owls Top Golden Panthers in Miami
5/15/2008 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 15, 2008
MIAMI, FL - Florida Atlantic University's bats banged out 20 hits and senior starter Michael Obradovich won his team-leading fifth game, throwing six innings of three-run baseball as FAU beat local rival Florida International University 10-3.
William Block and Travis Ozga hit home runs as part of a three-run FAU seventh inning to extend a tenuous two-run FAU advantage to five, 8-3.
Florida Atlantic (28-24-1; 14-11-1 SBC) boasts one of the nation's best offenses, ranking 9th nationally in scoring (9.1 runs p/g), fifth in home runs (1.73 p/g) and 16th in slugging percentage (.516).
Mike McKenna drove in the game's first run before Florida International (19-35; 11-17 SBC) recorded an out. McKenna singled home Nick Arata who led off the game with a double to right-centerfield. Block added and RBI double in his first at-bat and FAU led early 3-0.
Block went 4-for-6, hit his 11th homer and scored three times.
Three straight one-out doubles in the bottom of the second resulted in the first of FIU's three runs. With runners on second and third with one out Obradovich (5-4) was able to pitch out of the jam, allowing just one to score in the inning.
FAU's bats went back to work in the top of the third. Tom Hatcher and Block led off the FAU third with singles, the beginning of the end of FIU sophomore lefty Corey Pollizzano's night. Pollizzano allowed another single off the bat of Riaan Spanjer-Furstenburg, who was making his sixth start at first base. Jeremy Griffiths followed with and RBI-double to make the score 5-1.
Griffiths went 4-for-5 and hit his 10th double.
Pollizzano (5-7) was lifted one batter later, lasting just 2 2/3 innings. Pollizzano, who was 4-8 with a 6.15 ERA as a freshman in 2007, allowed five runs on nine hits.
Tyler Townsend had one of FIU's three doubles in the second inning and led off the bottom of the sixth with his team-leading 13th home run.
Townsend finished the night 2-for-3, his solo homer cut FAU's lead down to two, 5-3.
Senior James Lajiness had pitched three scoreless innings in relief of Pollizzano, before running into trouble in his fourth inning of work, the seventh. With one out in the seventh Block hit a 1-1 pitch out to left-center field, a solo homer. Ozga followed with a pinch-hit solo shot to right field and FAU went on to load the bases and score another to stretch the lead to 8-3.
The releif corps combination of Chris Schmitt, Alex Pepe and Chris Eberhart kept the Golden Panthers off the scoreboard in the final three innings.
GAME NOTES: William Block has 36 RBI and 11 HR's in FAU's last 26 games after having just 7 RBI and zero homers in the team's first 27... Mike McKenna's RBI Thursday puts him just one shy of tying FAU's all-time RBI record of 182... The Golden Panthers entered the weekend series needing to win at least two-of-three (plus getting outside help in the form of MTSU and ULL losses) to keep its postseason tournament hopes alive... FAU has already qualified for next week's Sun Belt postseason tournament... 21 of FAU's 28 wins have come when the team scores 10 or more runs.
