No. 17 Owls Upend No. 14 Southern Miss 9-5

Friday, April 29

Boca Raton, Fla.

6:30 PM

Florida Atlantic

29-11, 13-6

Southern Miss

30-13, 14-5

Southern Miss

Florida Atlantic

4/29/2016 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

April 29, 2016

Final Stats

BOCA RATON, Fla. â€" Freshman Nick Swan retired the final 11 Southern Miss batters in order to give the No. 17 Florida Atlantic University baseball team an important 9-5 victory over the No. 14 Golden Eagles in Conference USA play on Friday. The Owls (29-11, 13-6 C-USA) pulled within a game of the league-leading Golden Eagles with the victory in game one of the three-game series. FAU recorded six extra-base hits, led by Stephen Kerr who was a homer shy of the cycle with three RBI and a run scored. Freshman Tyler Frank drove in three runs while four players recorded multiple runs. The Owls hit for the cycle in their first four hits and drew nine walks on the night with four doubles, a triple and a home run. "It was fantastic," FAU Head Coach John McCormack said. "Our guys really responded and I just enjoyed watching them play tonight. They had extra energy and had really good at-bats. Swan was fantastic." Swan earned his second victory after dealing 4.2 innings with one hit allowed and two strikeouts in relief of Marc Stewart. FAU handed USM's Cord Cockrell his first loss of the year as Cockrell allowed six earned runs on seven hits in 3.2 frames. A lead-off single and a walk in the top of the first set up USM's Hunter Slater for a three-run homer to give the high-powered Golden Eagle offense and early advantage. FAU's Sean Labsan responded in the second with a first-pitch solo home run, his fifth of the year, to cut the lead to two. Brett Lashley singled before scoring on Kerr's first triple of the year in the third. Kerr then crossed the plate on an RBI by CJ Chatham to tie the game at 3-3. A lead-off walk to Esteban Puerta, followed by a double by Austin Langham, set Frank up for a sac fly in the fourth to give FAU its first lead of the night. Lashley and Kerr then laced back-to-back doubles to drive in two more runs, extending the lead to 6-3. Southern Miss struck back with two runs in the fifth before Swan got the Owls out of the jam with a 6-5 lead. Puerta, Laban and Langham drew consecutive two-out walks in the fifth before Frank came up with clutch two-RBI single to push the advantage back to three. The Golden Eagles couldn't get another base-runner against Swan as the Owls tacked on another run with Kerr plating Langham in the seventh to end the scoring. FAU and Southern Miss will square off in game two on Saturday, April 30 at 4 p.m. For tickets, call 1-866-FAU-OWLS or visit FAUSports.com.