Florida Atlantic University Athletics
Baseball Begins C-USA Tourney Play Wednesday vs. Rice
5/23/2017 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
BOCA RATON, Fla. - The Florida Atlantic University baseball team kicks off tournament play at The First, A National Banking Association, Conference USA Baseball Championship on Wednesday morning in the lidlifter in Biloxi, Mississippi.
The Owls (33-19-1, 18-12 C-USA) closed out the regular season with two of three wins over No. 25 Old Dominion in Boca Raton to earn the conference's No. 3 seed. The other Owls (27-29, 16-14 C-USA) are the sixth seed, but won 12 of their final 15 in league play after starting 4-11 against conference opponents. The squads will meet in the tournament opener at 10 a.m. EST Wednesday at MGM Park in Biloxi.
In the three-game aviary battle between the two teams in Boca Raton in late March/early April, the homestanding Owls took two of three from their Houston counterparts. They split one-run affairs, with FAU winning the opener 3-2 and Rice the middle game, 5-4, before FAU took a 8-2 victory in the Sunday finale. The capper came behind seven innings of three-hit, two-run baseball by Jake Miednik. He one-upped that in the season finale this past Saturday vs. Old Dominion with eight shutout innings, earning C-USA Pitcher of the Week honors.
FAU will send sophomore righthander Kyle Marman (2-1, 4.30) to the hill first Wednesday morning, his second start in as many weeks after 18 relief appearances (and 21 in his career) prior to his first collegiate appearance as a starter. He picked up the win in the Thursday opener against ODU with two scoreless innings, striking out the side in the first after loading the bases with no one out.
Rice will counter with Matt Canterino (4-4, 3.95). The freshman righthander led all C-USA pitching by holding opposing hitters to a .192 batting average, and finished fourth in the league with 89 strikeouts. Canterino pitched against FAU in the opener between the two on March 31 and took the loss. He pitched five innings, giving up three hits and three runs, walking four and striking out four. That included a two-run home run by Esteban Puerta in the third (to tie the game after Rice scored once in the first and once in their half of the third), and the third run - which proved to be the game-winner - came across without benefit of a hit in the FAU fifth.
The Wednesday opener will be featured on ESPN3 (http://es.pn/2q7NcwZ), and a free audio broadcast will also be available (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OKU3ZDqrHs). For more information on the C-USA Baseball Championship, visit http://conferenceusa.com/tournaments/?id=360. FAU and Rice are in the same half of the bracket as No. 2 seed ODU and No. 7 FIU, the second game Wednesday. The winner of those two matchups will move on to play in Game 7, at 5 p.m. EST on Thursday. The losers of each play in the first game Thursday, at 10 a.m. EST.
