Garcia Pitches Florida Atlantic Past UNO

Saturday, May 2

Boca Raton, Fla.

4:00 PM

Florida Atlantic

25-19, 0

New Orleans

18-28, 0

New Orleans

Florida Atlantic

5/2/2009 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

May 2, 2009

Final Stats

BOCA RATON, FL - Ahmed Garcia was dominant in his first Sun Belt Conference start, pitching eight complete innings to lead Florida Atlantic University past the University of New Orleans 7-2 Saturday.

Garcia (3-1) was so effective only four of the first 22 batters he faced got into a two-ball count. Without issuing a walk, he struck out five and allowed one earned run on six hits.

Florida Atlantic (25-19; 8-14 Sun Belt) improved to 20-8 on its home field and remain in postseason contention. The Owls need to overtake UNO and Arkansas State in the league standings to qualify for the SBC Tournament later this month.

FAU senior William Block hit his sixth homerun and finished the afternoon 3-for-5 with three RBI and a stolen base. The Owls' offense generated 14 hits in support of Garcia and closer Glen Troyanowski, who worked a 1-2-3 ninth.

New Orleans (18-28; 9-14 Sun Belt) had 20 hits and scored a season-high 19 runs yesterday - the Privateers were limited to just two runs and six hits Saturday.

FAU was up 2-0 after early-inning RBI singles by Colby Gratton and David Wilson. Block followed with a towering opposite-field two-run homer in the fifth, ending the afternoon of UNO freshman lefty Ricky Ott (1-2).

From the third out in the first inning and into the sixth Garcia retired 14 straight batters. UNO used a pair of bloop singles, an FAU fielding error and an RBI groundout to manufacture an unearned run off Garcia in the sixth.

Block chased UNO's second pitcher from the game, Tyler Sanders, with an RBI single during FAU's two-run sixth. The Owls used 11 hits in the first six innings to back Garcia with a 6-1 lead.

Wilson added an insurance run with FAU leading 6-2 in the seventh; lining a 3-2 pitch from Cory Myers over a drawn-in infield, scoring Mike Albaladejo who had singled to begin the inning.

With the score 7-2, Garcia was lifted after eight innings and 113 pitches. Troyanowski fanned two of the three batters he faced in the ninth.

GAME NOTES: William Block's two-run drive in the fifth was his 43rd career homerun, just four shy of FAU's all-time record... Garcia and Troyanowski combined to throw FAU's first walk-free game of the season... Garcia started the season as a reliever; he has now won both of his two starts - the other coming two weeks ago versus Bryant.