Florida Atlantic University Athletics
Baseball Opens Practice for Challenging 2012 Season
1/27/2012 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Boca Raton, FL - New faces, new positions and a new season await the Florida Atlantic University baseball team as players and coaches began preparations on Friday, January 27, for a challenging spring campaign.
The Owls are coming off a 32-win 2011 season in which they once again challenged for the Sun Belt Conference regular season championship. The team won the season series with perennial national power University of Miami for the first time since 1984. Two members of last year's team were selected in the major league draft to possibly continue their playing aspirations in the professional ranks, including right-handed pitcher Paul Davis (17th round). Two other players signed free agent deals later in the summer.
But, as Head Baseball Coach John McCormack likes to remind the team, those were accomplishments by last year's team.
"We are excited and looking forward to practice, and seeing where this this team will stack up in the proud history of FAU baseball," said McCormack, starting his fourth season as head coach and 22nd year on the staff. "We have 18 practices to get ready for opening day and we need every one of them to iron out a few things. The players are anxious to get to work for the season ahead."
FAU returns three starting pitchers and two position players from last year's team. Senior pitcher Hugh Adams led the Sun Belt Conference (SBC) in 2011 with 10 saves, and earned first-team all-conference and all-region honors. Senior outfielder Alex Hudak finished second in the SBC in hitting and was a second-team all-league selection last spring. Senior pitcher Ahmed Garcia won the team's Iron Owl Award during fall preseason workouts.
"We have the components to have another strong season," said McCormack while previewing this year's team. "Pitching should be a key component for us. We'll have some new faces in the lineup and some interesting position changes. We had very productive fall preseason workouts and a competitive Iron Owl Challenge. I hope that carries over to our play on the field during the spring season."
The Owls will play their first 13 games against NCAA tournament qualifiers, beginning with a three-game series at the University of Alabama on February 17. The meeting will be the team's first trip to Tuscaloosa, Ala., since the Owls won the 2002 regional after defeating the No. 2 national seed. The home opener will come a week later, February 24, against Manhattan College, defending champions of the Metro Athletic Association Conference. Also coming to the FAU Baseball Stadium will be Miami and Boston College from the Atlantic Coast Conference, Rutgers of the Big East Conference, UCF from Conference USA, Princeton University of the Ivy League, Fordham University of the Atlantic 10 Conference and cross-town rival Lynn University.
Besides the season-opening trip to Alabama, Florida Atlantic's road schedule will include games at the University of Florida, last year's NCAA championship runner up; UCF; and Sun Belt Conference opponents FIU, Middle Tennessee State University, Louisiana-Monroe, Troy University, Arkansas-Little Rock and Western Kentucky.
"Having so many teams that played in the NCAA Regionals last year make it a challenging schedule. But, we are looking forward to the season and competing against the best," said McCormack.
Season tickets are available through the FAU ticket office website at www.fausports.com/tickets/fau-tickets.html, or by calling 1-866-FAU-OWLS. Tickets also will be made available at Ticketmaster.com.
