Florida Atlantic University Athletics
Florida Atlantic
29-8
Florida Gulf Coast
19-18-1
No. 14 Owls Down FGCU 10-6
4/14/2015 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
FORT MYERS, Fla. - A four-run eighth inning propelled the Florida Atlantic University baseball team to a 10-6 road win at Florida Gulf Coast Tuesday night.
The Owls (29-8) tallied 15 hits and drew four walks in the non-conference victory.
Freshman Blake Sanderson earned his first career victory, dealing 1.2 innings of shutout work with a strikeout. Devon Carr picked up his first save and Bo Logan struck out four and retired all nine batters he faced over three innings.
CJ Chatham hit a double and went 3-for-5 with two runs and an RBI while Stephen Kerr was 3-for-5 with a walk and a run scored.
Junior Christian Dicks hit his team-leading seventh home run in the second inning to plate himself and Esteban Puerta to give the Owls a 2-0 lead.
After the Eagles (19-18-1) scored four runs on just one hit in the third to take the lead, the Owls responded with a flurry in the fifth.
Chatham and Kerr singled and Brett Lashley walked to load the bases before Brendon Sanger hit a two-RBI single to right to tie the game at 3-3. Ricky Santiago and Roman Collins each hit back-to-back singles to drive in Lashley to retake the lead before Puerta drew a bases-loaded, four-pitch walk to increase the advantage to 6-4.
The Owls improved the lead to 8-4 in the eighth with the help of two FGCU errors and an RBI single by Kevin Abraham.
Collins walked and came around to score on another error before Chatham's double plated Billy Endris in the top of the ninth to put FAU on top 10-4.
FGCU threatened a rally in the bottom of the ninth, scoring two runs with the tying run on deck as Carr came in and forced a pair of infield outs to end the game.
FAU returns to Conference USA play with a three-game series at Southern Miss starting on Friday, April 17. Free audio will be available on FAUSports.com.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Sanderson, Blake (1-0)
L: SMELTZER, Devin (1-4)
S: Carr, Devon (1)
Batting:
2B: Chatham, CJ 1
HR: Dicks, Christian 1
RBI: Sanger, Brendon 2 ; Collins, Roman 1 ; Puerta, Esteban 1 ; Dicks, Christian 2 ; Chatham, CJ 1 ; Abraham, Kevin 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Kerr, Stephen 1 ; Lashley, Brett 1 ; Sanger, Brendon 1 ; Collins, Roman 1 ; Puerta, Esteban 1 ; Dicks, Christian 2 ; Endris, Billy 1 ; Chatham, CJ 2
SB: Kerr, Stephen 1
PO: Kerr, Stephen 1
Batting:
RBI: REARDON, Matt 1 ; SELESKY, Tyler 1 ; NOLL, Jake 1 ; BOTTOMLEY, Colton 2
SH: SELESKY, Tyler 1 ; SPIVEY, Zach 1
Base Running:
RUNS: REARDON, Matt 1 ; SELESKY, Tyler 1 ; RIVERA, Nick 1 ; NOLL, Jake 1 ; PRUETT, Brian 1 ; ANDERSON, Brady 1
CS: BOTTOMLEY, Colton 1
HBP: SPIVEY, Zach 1
