Baseball Walks Off in Extras to Win Second Straight over UC

Saturday, February 16

Boca Raton, Fla.

4:00 PM

Florida Atlantic

2-0

Cincinnati

0-2

Cincinnati

Florida Atlantic

Photo by: JC Ridley/Owlpix.com

2/16/2019 9:57:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

BOCA RATON, Fla. – Down by as many as four runs, the Florida Atlantic University baseball team came back to take a late lead, weathered a tie for four innings, and walked it off in the bottom of the 11th to beat Cincinnati on Saturday night, 8-7. Sunday's finale, with FAU going for the sweep, will start earlier than normal, at 11:30 a.m.

Quotable
"It's a good win for the team, we made a fair amount of mistakes, and guys kept charging and kept in it." said Head Coach John McCormack "Zach (Schneider) was unbelievable … and Eric Rivera, with the big grand slam, gave us a huge boost."

Full Opening Statement from Coach Mac

The Turning Point
Cincinnati (0-2) took leads of 3-0 after their turn in the fifth, and 6-2 after the top half of the sixth. The Owls (2-0) loaded the bases in the home sixth with two outs, and a walk to Wilfredo Alvarez forced in a run to cut the lead to 6-3. With the bases still loaded, on a 1-0 pitch, Eric Rivera blasted a line drive well over the fence in left to give FAU their first lead of the game.

The Finish
In the top of the seventh, with two outs, closer Zach Schneider was called upon. With runners on the corners, he induced a groundout to third to stymie that rally. Though the Bearcats knotted it up in the eighth, Schneider threw up zeroes the rest of the way, with a 1-2-3 ninth, stranding a leadoff single in the 10th, and leaving two more on in the 11th. In the bottom half, Rivera walked with one out, on a head's up play, tagged for second on a long flyout, and two batters later, came across on Bobby Morgensen's line drive double to right to win it.

The Arms

Ryan Sandberg drew the start, and gave up one earned run in 4 1/3 innings
Eric Keating, Vince Coletti and Jacob Josey followed
Schneider (1-0) threw 4 1/3 innings to pick up the win, allowing three hits, an unearned run, and striking out three versus two walks

The Bats

The Owls posted double digits in hits for the second straight day with 10, and again, all nine starters (plus reserve Richie Nizza) reached base at least once
Joe Montes had three, and Rivera and Gunnar Lambert two
Lambert knocked in FAU's first two runs, on a bloop single in the fifth. A single his first at-bat makes for 32 straight games reaching base
Rivera scored three times out of the leadoff spot

Miscellaneous

All eight runs (just like all nine on Friday) scored with two outs
Josey became the eighth Owl to make his FAU debut so far this weekend with his Saturday relief outing

What's Next
The series finale, again, begins at 11:30 a.m. Sunday morning. Mike Ruff takes the ball for the Owls, against UC's Garrett Schoenle. Tickets are available by calling 1-866-FAU-OWLS or by visiting baseball's ticket website.