Baseball Falls in C-USA Tournament Opener to Rice

Wednesday, May 24

Biloxi, Miss.

10:00 AM

Florida Atlantic

33-20-1

Rice

28-29

Rice

Florida Atlantic

5/24/2017 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

May 24, 2017

Box Score

BILOXI, Miss. - Rice scored twice in the first inning and had an answer every time the Florida Atlantic University baseball team tried to claw back, taking the first game of The First, A National Banking Association 2017 Conference USA Baseball Championship on Wednesday morning, 5-3.

The Turning Point

Rice (28-29) scored first, on a groundout and solo home run in their opening at-bat, for a 2-0 lead. FAU (33-20-1) halved the deficit in the second, on a home run by Esteban Puerta, but immediately Rice answered, with a homer of their own (by Dominic DiCaprio) in their very next at-bat, for a 3-1 lead. The same thing happened in the sixth/seventh. Tyler Frank of FAU hit a solo shot to make it a one-run game, but in the Rice seventh, DiCaprio doubled with two outs for another two-run edge.

The Finish

Rice would go up three with another run in the eighth, but FAU's Stephen Kerr got one back with the team's third solo home run of the day to leftfield, in the home half of the same inning. Trailing 5-3 and down to their final out, FAU made it interesting with two reaching to put the tying run on first base (on a hit by Jordan Poore and Pedro Pages getting hit by a pitch), but Rice closer Glenn Otto induced a flyout to end it, 5-3.

Notables

Frank had two of the team's six hits; the only other FAU batter to reach twice was Eric Rivera, with a single and a walk (the only base-on-balls they drew all day)
For Puerta, his 10th longball of the season marked back-to-back years of double-digit home runs
Kyle Marman started and had the longest outing of his Owls' career, both inning- and pitch-wise. He threw five innings, giving up five hits and three runs, and threw 87 pitches (his previous high was 51)

Quotable

"We have to swing the bats better," said Head Coach John McCormack. "I thought we pitched well and our defense was good. We just have to swing the bats better. At one point, we ran 18 or 19 0-2 counts, and that is really hard to hit. We need to be a little bit more aggressive."

What's Next

FAU will play the opening game for the second straight day Thursday, taking on whoever does not win between Old Dominion and FIU. Game time will once again be at 10 a.m. EST, and the Owls will need a victory to continue in the tournament.