Baseball Walks Off for Sweep of Opening Weekend

Sunday, February 18

Boca Raton, Fla.

12:00 PM

Florida Atlantic

3-0

George Washington

0-3

George Washington

Florida Atlantic

2/18/2018 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

Feb. 18, 2018

Box Score

BOCA RATON, Fla. - Trailing 2-1 with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Diamond Johnson came through with a two-run single as Florida Atlantic University baseball swept George Washington with Sunday's 3-2 walkoff victory at FAU Baseball Stadium.

Quotable

"Diamond (Johnson) had that huge hit, plus he had a big hit to break the game open yesterday," said Head Coach John McCormack. "It was a really good weekend for everybody. All the pitchers did well ... the relief pitching, you can't say enough about Drew Peden, (and) we played good defense, we had one error in 27 innings. We pitched well, guys got off the bench and got in the game, a lot of good things."

The Turning Point

GW (0-3) used a first-pitch leadoff home run by Isaiah Pasteur and a fourth-inning RBI single by Robbie Metz to hold a 2-0 lead. The Owls (3-0) halved the deficit without benefit of a hit in the seventh, the run coming in on a sacrifice fly by Kevin Abraham, setting up the ninth-inning fireworks.

The Finish

Building off of a perfect three-inning relief stint by Drew Peden, the Owls put two on and one out in their final at-bat. Eric Rivera snuck a seeing-eye single up the middle, followed by a walk to Andru Summerall. He was replaced on the basepaths by pinch-runner Richie Nizza, and in the midst of the next at-bat, both runners advanced on a passed ball. Down to his team's final out, and on a 1-1 count, Johnson laced a line drive to right field, scoring the tying and winning runs, and sending the Owls out of the dugout in celebration.

The Bats

Johnson earned four RBI on the weekend
The Owls had been held to just three hits coming into the final frame: a single in the first by Tyler Frank, another single by Joe Montes in the third, and Summerall's first collegiate hit, a single in the fifth
The sac fly in the seventh scored Cody Wilson, who had reached on an error

The Arms

In his FAU debut, Vince Coletti twirled a quality start, scattering eight hits and allowing just two runs in six innings of work. He threw 70 percent strikes and had three K's
Peden faced the minimum nine batters in three innings of work, the only batter reaching against him coming on an error, but erased on a caught stealing by Abraham
The junior righthander gave up no hits and struck out four in his scoreless appearance to earn the win

What's Next

The Owls head to Gainesville against the similarly undefeated Florida Gators, ranked No. 1 in the nation by most, if not all, polls. Game time Tuesday night is 6 p.m. at Alfred A. McKethan Stadium at Perry Field. Sophomore righthander Nick Prather is expected to make the start for FAU.