Florida Atlantic University Athletics
Florida Atlantic
14-2
Rutgers
1-9
Santiago's Seven RBI Seals Sweep of Rutgers 12-4
3/8/2015 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
BOCA RATON, Fla. - Ricky Santiago hit home runs in each of his first two at-bats, including a grand slam, en route to seven RBI as the No. 24 Florida Atlantic University baseball team won its eighth consecutive game with a 12-4 rout of Rutgers on Sunday.
The Owls (14-2) have won ten straight at the FAU Baseball Stadium and hold the best record in Conference USA with league play starting next weekend.
After a Brendon Sanger single in the first inning, Santiago sent a 2-2 pitch sailing over the left field wall for his first home run of the season to put the Owls up 2-0 on Rutgers.
CJ Chatham doubled to lead off the second and scored on a single by Kevin Abraham before Stephen Kerr singled and Sanger walked to load the bases again. Just two pitches later, Santiago had his sixth RBI of the game with a grand slam to right field, FAU's second slam of the weekend.
The Scarlet Knights got on the board in the second, but the Owls would tack on another run in the third as Sanger hit a bases-loaded single to make it 8-1.
Following three more runs by Rutgers, junior Christian Dicks hit his team-leading fifth home run of the year, a solo shot to extend the FAU lead to 9-4 in the sixth.
Kerr and Sanger reached safely again in the seventh to allow Santiago to drive in his seventh run of the game to increase the lead to 10-4.
FAU rounded out the scoring in the eighth as Chatham hit an RBI single and Randy Oliva hit a pinch-hit sacrifice fly to plate Danny Murray and Chatham, respectively.
Kerr, Sanger and Santiago combined for nine hits, nine RBI and six runs scored at the top of the lineup. All nine batters recorded hits in the first four innings and eight different players scored for the Owls.
Robbie Coursel earned the win dealing five innings of work with four strikeouts and seven hits allowed.
FAU hosts Illinois State on Tuesday, March 10 at 3:30 p.m. and NC State on Wednesday, March 11 at 6:30 p.m. For tickets, call 1-866-FAU-OWLS or visit FAUSports.com.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Coursel, Robbie (2-0)
L: Driscoll (0-2)
Batting:
2B: Zarrillo 1 ; Suseck 1
RBI: Rosa 1 ; Marcinczyk 1 ; Suseck 2
Base Running:
RUNS: Zarrillo 1 ; Devish 1 ; Suseck 2
SB: Suseck 1
HBP: Marcinczyk 1 ; Devish 1 ; Suseck 1 ; Jennings 1
Batting:
2B: Puerta, Esteban 1 ; Chatham, CJ 1
HR: Santiago, Ricky 2 ; Dicks, Christian 1
RBI: Oliva, Randy 1 ; Sanger, Brendon 1 ; Santiago, Ricky 7 ; Dicks, Christian 1 ; Chatham, CJ 1 ; Abraham, Kevin 1
SF: Oliva, Randy 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Kerr, Stephen 2 ; Sanger, Brendon 2 ; Santiago, Ricky 2 ; Murray, Danny 1 ; Dicks, Christian 1 ; Chatham, CJ 2 ; Labsan, Sean 1 ; Abraham, Kevin 1
