Florida Atlantic University Athletics
Florida Atlantic
6-4-1
Illinois
3-7
Baseball Takes Series vs. Illinois with 16-2 Sunday Rout
3/5/2017 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
BOCA RATON, Fla. - The Florida Atlantic University baseball team scored at least one run in each of the first five innings, and behind a great outing from starting pitcher Nick Swan, took two of three in the weekend series against Illinois with Sunday afternoon's 16-2 win at FAU Baseball Stadium.
The Turning Point
The Owls (6-4-1) struck early and often, with three runs in each of their first two turns at the plate. In the opening frame, freshman Eric Rivera lifted a flyball over the rightfield fence for his first career home run, and a Kevin Abraham double and David Miranda groundout made it 3-0. Then, in the second, the team strung together four straight singles to start (by Gary Mattis, Brad Mathiowetz, Tyler Frank and Rivera), the latter two each plating runs. A double-play groundout pushed the lead to 6-0 through just two innings.
The Finish
A run in the third (off a Mattis single) and two in the fourth (a Sean Labsan home run) lengthened the advantage to 9-0, and a five-run fifth cemented it. In that frame, Mattis notched his third consecutive single to score Miranda; a double by Frank brought Mattis all the way around from first; a Rivera double scored Frank; Esteban Puerta singled to plate Rivera; and after a walk, an Abraham single pushed Puerta across.
Notables
- Swan (1-0) put together his best outing of the young season to earn the victory, an efficient six innings of four-hit, one-run baseball
- The final two Owls' runs came in the eighth, on a bases-loaded walk to Pedro Pages and an RBI single by Alex Ray, the second by the freshman in as many days
- Frank, Rivera and Mattis each had three hits. Frank scored three runs, and five Owls touched home twice: Rivera, Puerta, Labsan, Miranda and Mattis
- Rivera led the team with three RBI, while Frank, Labsan, Abraham and Mattis had two apiece
- Several Owls extended hitting streaks on Sunday: Frank has hit in all 11 games so far this year, the freshmen combo of Rivera and Mattis are now at seven and six straight games respectively, and Miranda had a hit in each of the five games over the last week's slate
- Like Frank, Puerta has reached base at least once in all 11 games. Mattis' streak is currently at 10
- Three relievers had scoreless outings on Sunday: Drew Peden, Jordan Poore and Kyle Marman. The Illini got a ninth-inning run off Blake Sanderson, but he finished out the win with a sterling assist on a grounder near the third-base foul line
- The 16 runs scored Sunday by FAU tied their season high; the 18 hits they strung together is a new 2017 best
- Ten Owls notched at least one hit, nine scored one run or more, and nine different players knocked in a run
Quotable
"As I said to the team after losses like yesterday, you just never know how they're going to come out," said Head Coach John McCormack. "Today was almost a reversal of yesterday. Things went our way, the ball at times bounced our way and we had some balls fall in. The most important thing about the whole day was Nick Swan, he came out and put up zeroes. Especially in the first inning, he put up a zero and then we were able to score three. I can't say enough about how well Nick Swan threw."
What's Next
The first of five games for FAU this upcoming week will be on the road, Tuesday in Daytona Beach in a makeup of an earlier postponement against Bethune-Cookman. Game time is 4 p.m., with free live audio available here at 3:50: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s48XgcSw2v0.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Swan, Nick (1-0)
L: Thompson, Ryan (0-1)
Batting:
2B: Engel, Tyler 1 ; Haff, Ryan 1
RBI: Engel, Tyler 1
Base Running:
RUNS: McInerney, Pat 1 ; Turchin, Doran 1
SB: Troike, Ben 1
HBP: McInerney, Pat 1 ; Turchin, Doran 1
Batting:
2B: Frank, Tyler 1 ; Rivera, Eric 1 ; Abraham, Kevin 1 ; Miranda, David 1
HR: Rivera, Eric 1 ; Labsan, Sean 1
RBI: Frank, Tyler 2 ; Rivera, Eric 3 ; Puerta, Esteban 1 ; Labsan, Sean 2 ; Abraham, Kevin 2 ; Miranda, David 1 ; Mattis, Gary 2 ; Pages, Pedro 1 ; Ray, Alex 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Frank, Tyler 3 ; Rivera, Eric 2 ; Puerta, Esteban 2 ; Labsan, Sean 2 ; Shouppe, Jared 1 ; Miranda, David 2 ; DeJongh, Aldrich 1 ; Mattis, Gary 2 ; Mathiowetz, Brad 1
HBP: Miranda, David 1
