Baseball Edged in First Game in San Antonio, 9-6

Friday, April 21

San Antonio, Texas

7:00 PM

Florida Atlantic

24-12-1, 11-5

UTSA

19-17, 8-8

Florida Atlantic

UTSA

4/21/2017 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

April 21, 2017

Box Score

SAN ANTONIO, Texas - The Florida Atlantic University baseball team fell behind early and weren't able to quite get over the hump in a 9-6 Friday night loss to UTSA at Roadrunner Field.

The Turning Point

Though Tyler Frank homered deep above the scoreboard in leftfield to lead off the game, consecutive four-run innings by the Roadrunners (19-17, 8-8 Conference USA) in the second and third gave the home team a big enough lead to hold off the Owls' (24-12-1, 11-5 C-USA) comeback attempt.

The Finish

FAU put together three straight innings of runs, cutting it to a two-run deficit at 8-6 in the top of the seventh on an Eric Rivera solo shot. But after the scoring frames, the Owl bats were shut down by the last UTSA pitcher, Tyler Giovanoni, for the series-opening win.

Notables

Starting pitcher Alex House (5-2) settled down to retire nine straight hitters (including two perfect innings), though that stretch ended with a home run in the home seventh for the final margin
Drew Peden was remarkable in relief, allowing just a walk and throwing nearly 80 percent of his pitches for strikes. He had four strikeouts among the five batters he retired at the plate (the first out he recorded was a runner caught stealing at second by Kevin Abraham)
Frank reached three times, on two hits and a walk, and scored two runs. Also with two hits was Rivera
David Miranda had a two-run triple and Stephen Kerr plated him with an RBI single in the Owls' three-run fifth

Quotable

"The guys hung in there and kept fighting," said Head Coach John McCormack. "But we can't give up back-to-back four-run innings and expect to win. We have to be able to manage innings better."

What's Next

Game two at UTSA is a 3 p.m. Eastern first pitch on Saturday. The starting pitching matchup will be Jake Miednik for the Owls against the Roadrunners' Nolan Trabanino.