Baseball Topped in Series Opener By Blue Raiders, 6-2

Friday, May 11

Murfreesboro, Tenn.

7:00 PM

Florida Atlantic

31-15-1, 0

Middle Tennessee

25-23-1, 0

Florida Atlantic

Middle Tennessee

5/11/2018 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

May 11, 2018

Box Score

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - Middle Tennessee scored five combined runs in the fourth and fifth and held Florida Atlantic University baseball to five hits in Friday's 6-2 win over the Owls. The loss marked the first in an opening game of a series against a Conference USA opponent this season.

Quotable

"Tonight is a tough loss, you have to give credit to their starting pitcher, he made the pitches tonight when it counted," said Head Coach John McCormack. "This is a really important series and we need to be ready to go tomorrow."

The Turning Point

Tyler Frank led off Friday's game by slicing a 2-2 pitch the opposite way and over the rightfield fence for a quick 1-0 FAU (31-15-1, 15-9-1 C-USA) lead. But the Blue Raiders (25-23-1, 10-14-1 C-USA), on a strength of a two-run shot by Aaron Aucker in the fourth, took a lead they wouldn't relinquish.

The Finish

MT scored twice more in the fifth, and only in the eighth did FAU get multiple runners on. They chased starter Jake Wyrick after two walks, a run scoring on an error, and a David Miranda single to bring the tying run to the plate. But closer Drew Huff induced a flyout to end that threat, and worked around a leadoff single by Gunnar Lambert in the ninth to earn the save.

The Bats

Frank's 10th home run of the season was his third in the first inning of a game, and second leading off a contest. He nearly had another in the fifth, but was robbed at the wall
Cody Wilson had two hits in his first two at-bats

The Arms

Five runs and the loss were charged to Vince Coletti, now 2-4 on the year
Nick Swan had a superb relief outing. With second and third and two outs in the fifth, he struck out back-to-back batters to extinguish that threat
He would retire the next eight, for 10 in a row, until a solo shot ended the scoring. After the next out, his final line was 3 2/3 innings, just the one hit and run, and five strikeouts

What's Next

Game two begins at 5 p.m. Eastern on Saturday. Next weekend, FAU hosts WKU at FAU Baseball Stadium, beginning Thursday. To buy tickets, call 1-866-FAU-OWLS or visit www.fausports.com/tickets/baseball-tickets.html.