Baseball Drops Series Opener to Seton Hall

Thursday, March 10

Boca Raton, Fla.

6:30 PM

Florida Atlantic

10-5

Seton Hall

4-7

Seton Hall

Florida Atlantic

3/10/2011 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

March 10, 2011

Final Stats

Boca Raton, Fla. - It was a night filled with missed opportunities as the Florida Atlantic University baseball team left 16 runners on base in suffering a 11-4 loss to Seton Hall University on Thursday night to start a three-game series at the FAU Baseball Stadium in Boca Raton.

Contributing to the Owls' fate was the fact that they failed to capitalize on bases-loaded situations in the third, fifth and eighth innings.

FAU falls to 10-5 on the season and lost for the second straight game, while Seton Hall improves to 4-7 on the spring campaign with consecutive wins for the first time this season. The two teams will resume the series on Friday, March 11, beginning at 6:30 p.m.

The visiting Pirates seized early control of the game by scoring eight runs in the third inning off FAU starting pitcher Ryan Garton. The big blow was a grand slam home run by Ryan Sullivan, his second hit of the inning. A.J. Rusbarsky also had a sacrifice fly to center field to score Mike Genovese, who had a RBI single. Michael Betz drew a bases-loaded walk to also contribute to the scoring in the inning.

Florida Atlantic responded in the bottom half of the third inning with junior catcher Mike Albaladejo's single through the right side scoring senior outfielder Colby Gratton. He led off with inning with a double -- the Owls' only extra base hit on the evening.

Seton Hall added two runs in the sixth inning and scored an additional run in the ninth inning. The Pirates got a quality five innings from starting pitcher Benny Mejia. The right hander tossed eight strikeouts and allowed one run in five innings.

The Owls scored three times in the eighth inning, highlighted by a triple to deep center field by sophomore infielder Mark Nelson that scored freshman infielder Devon Workman and Gratton. Nelson would score on a RBI single by senior outfielder Andy Mee. But the team wasted an excellent opportunity to cut the gap even further with the bases loaded and just one out. However, Seton Hall reliever George Fernandez got a strikeout and foul out to end the threat.

The offensive heroics for FAU once again featured senior second baseman Raymond Church, who extended his hitting streak to 24 games with a single in the third inning. He is now tied with Kevin Connacher for the school record for the longest stretch of games with a base hit.

Meanwhile, senior first baseman Dan Scheffler and Albaladejo each had two hits among the nine-hit attack. Gratton scored a pair of runs in the setback. The Pirates had 15 hits in the series opener, led by Sullivan's three-hit performance that drove in four runs. Will Walsh also had three hits for the victors.

Season and individual tickets of Florida Atlantic baseball are available by calling the FAU Ticket Office at 1-866-FAU-OWLS.