Baseball Wraps Fall World Series as Red Takes Comfortable Win

BOCA RATON, Fla. – Florida Atlantic University baseball pretty well put a conclusion on their preseason on Wednesday afternoon, as the Red Squad took a 22-6 win over their Blue counterparts in the 2018 edition of the program's annual Fall World Series.

Quotable
"We've got a nice team," said Head Coach John McCormack of where he thinks the Owls are, here at the end of fall. "We've got a really good group of players, they care about each other, they do a lot of things really well. Great community service, very good in school, good guys. On the field, positionally, we're in good shape. Pitching, we need to be able to have some guys graduate, get over the hump so to speak, and be ready to pitch in Division I baseball. There's plenty of talent on the field, we've just got to get some guys up and running, especially on the mound."

Full Video with Coach Mac

The Turning Point
After trailing 4-1 after the first day's eight innings, it didn't take Red long to take the lead, and they'd take it for good. A six spot in their first at-bat (the first inning of Wednesday and ninth inning of the two-game series) flipped the script to the tune of a 7-4 lead.

The Finish
Blue scored twice in the 11th to cut it to one, but that was as close as they'd get. A four-run Red bottom of the 11th, highlighted by an Andru Summerall home run that may not yet have landed, preceded three in the 12th. Five had already scored in the 14th when Wilfredo Alvarez's three-run home run called it.

Interview with Winning Red Team Captains Gunnar Lambert and Blake Sanderson

The Arms / The Gloves - BLUE

Freshman Hunter Cooley retired the first two batters of the afternoon before the next three reached to score the game's first run
In the second, with Cooley still on, a hit by pitch started things, a 3-6-1 double play turned the lineup over, and he would eventually strand a runner at second to end the frame
Cooley wrapped his day with a 1-2-3 third
Mike Ruff took over for the fourth and stranded two on a flyout, then had a spotless fifth
He gave way to Vince Coletti, who was more of the same, three up, three down in both the sixth and seventh innings
In his third inning, the eighth, the first two Red batters got on, but Coletti wriggled out of the jam

DAY TWO

Captain Nick Swan chose himself to start the second day proceedings, but Red scored six on him in his only inning of work
Next in, for the 10th, was Michael Schuler, who retired the first two before giving up a hit, but came back with a strikeout to end the frame. He wasn't as lucky in the 11th, allowing four runs, and was replaced in the midst of the 12th by Jon Jon Kostantis
Konstantis allowed two runners in the 13th but got out of it
Blue then turned to Vladimir Zavala, who had a rough 14th

The Bats - RED

In the top of the first, Gunnar Lambert walked with two outs, advanced to third on a single by Summerall, and scored on B.J. Murray's opposite field single to right
Jacob Pino was hit by a pitch to start the second, but was out on the front end of the double play
With two outs, Eric Rivera blooped a single to center to keep the inning going, and stole second of the first pitch of the next at-bat, but was left on
Mitchell Hartigan notched hit No. 4 for Red, leading off the top of the fourth. He too stole second and advanced to third on a groundout. A two-out walk to Rivera put runners on the corners, but both were stranded
After not having a runner on for three innings, the first two reached in the eighth: Summerall walked, and Murray had another opposite field single. But Red came up empty in their final at-bat of the first day

DAY TWO

Rivera walked again to leadoff the ninth, his third time on, followed by a bloop single down the line in left by Alvarez. An error loaded the bases with no outs
Summerall smoked a double into the rightfield corner to score two and cut the deficit to one
One out later, Hartigan recorded a two-run single to give Red back the lead, and he came in on a sac fly by Pino
Richie Nizza kept the inning going with two-out double, and scored Red's sixth run on a single by Rivera in his second at-bat of the inning. That made it Red 7, Blue 4
Murray's third hit came in the 10th, a double with two outs
Pino led off the 11th with a seeing-eye single, and Nizza followed with an RBI double to push the cushion back out to two
Rivera legged out a bunt single to move Nizza to third, and he scored on a fielder's choice
Summerall added on with two more with an absolute no-doubter of a bomb to right, pushing the Red advantage out to 11-6
Nizza continued his hot hitting in the 12th, following Hartigan's double with a single to put runners on the corners
Rivera singled in one, another scored on a groundout, and a third run came in on a wild pitch. The Red lead ballooned to 14-6
Hartigan doubled again in the 13th, and Pino walked
Eight more crossed in the 14th – including a Murray RBI double, another Hartigan double for one, a Pino single for another and a Nizza double for another – before the game-ender

The Arms / The Gloves - RED

First on the hill for Red was Zach Schneider, who opened the first with a strikeout before hitting a batter, but that runner was erased on a caught stealing with a perfect strike thrown by Lambert. After a two-out walk, another strikeout ended the inning
Schneider gave up a run in the second, but was helped out by a 5-4-3 double play to keep it tied
Like Cooley, Schneider had a perfect third and final inning of work as well
Captain Sanderson called his own number to pitch the fourth, and he too retired the opposition 1-2-3. He also worked around a two-out single for a scoreless fifth, but gave up the go-ahead run in the sixth, his last inning of work
The third Red pitcher was Jackson Vescelus, who gave up a run in two innings on Tuesday
They then turned to Dylan O'Connell, who gave up an unearned run in the final inning of the opening day

DAY TWO

Ryan Sandberg became the fifth Red pitcher, "starting" the top of the ninth. He issued a walk but otherwise coming out unscathed
Similarly, in the 10th, one Blue runner reached but was left at second
In what was to be his final inning, Sandberg got an out but then hit two batters and was relieved by Eric Keating. Both runners scored, and both were charged to Sandberg. Keating left the tying run at second on a strikeout
Keating's first full inning was a 1-2-3 top of the 12th, with two more strikeouts, and he'd strand two in the 13th
Dylan Carter dealt a spotless 14th, which ended up closing things out

The Bats - BLUE

In the bottom of the first, Francisco Urbaez reached on a one-out HBP, but was caught stealing, and the next batter, Bobby Morgensen walked, but would be stranded
Garrett Evans walked with one out in the second, would steal second, and scored on a slicing liner by Harry Vargas, off the shortstop and into leftfield, to make it 1-1
Nicholas Toney got the first Blue hit in three innings, a sinking shot to right with two outs in the fifth
Diamond Johnson legged out an infield single to start the sixth, and went to third on an Urbaez single to right (Urbaez advanced to second on an error on the throw in)
Blue took the lead on a one-out sacrifice fly by Joe Montes
Vargas got his second hit on an infield single with one out in the seventh. He recorded a stolen base as well, and moved up to third on a groundout. He'd score the team's third run on a deep triple to left off the bat of Jacob Josey
Urbaez got on for the third time with a leadoff walk in the eighth, and would score on an error to make it 4-1

DAY TWO

As the lineup restarted, Urbaez was the second hitter in the ninth, and drew another walk
Vargas' two-out double in the 10th marked his third hit of the series
Johnson and Urbaez, who were each hit, successfully converted a double steal in the 11th. Morgensen then singled in Johnson, and Urbaez scored when Red tried to cut down Morgensen advancing to second. The lead dropped back down to one at 7-6 in favor of Red
Johnson walked and Morgensen singled in the 13th

What's Next
This weekend, the Owls will host both an Alumni Game (Saturday at noon) and Scout Day (Sunday at 4:30 p.m.). Spring ramps back up in late January, ahead of the 2019 campaign, beginning Feb. 15. Stay tuned for the schedule unveiling right here Thursday on FAUSports.com.

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