Baseball Completes Opening Weekend Sweep with Another Comeback Win

Sunday, February 17

Boca Raton, Fla.

11:30 AM

Florida Atlantic

3-0

Cincinnati

0-3

Cincinnati

Florida Atlantic

Photo by: JC Ridley/Owlpix.com

Baseball Completes Opening Weekend Sweep with Another Comeback Win

2/17/2019 3:35:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

BOCA RATON, Fla. – For the second straight day, the Florida Atlantic University baseball team erased at least a three-run deficit, towards completing a sweep of visiting Cincinnati on opening weekend, by the Sunday final of 5-3.

Quotable
"We did what we needed to do, and we got the sweep," said Head Coach John McCormack. "I wish we would have played a little bit better, but we did what we had to come here today and do. Big inning there, gave up two, went down three, but we scored four and tagged on another one. I thought that Vince (Coletti) pitched really well, three innings in relief. (Cincinnati was) starting to kind of feel it a little bit, and he did a really good job of keeping them at bay."

The Turning Point
The Bearcats (0-3) used two home runs to take a three-run lead after the top of the fifth, but two-out magic continued for FAU (3-0) in the bottom half. With Wilfredo Alvarez at second, Gunnar Lambert crushed a 1-0 offering over the bullpen treehouse in right to cut it to one at 3-2. Still there was no one on, but Pedro Pages drew a walk, and came all the way around from first on a Bobby Morgensen triple to tie it. Then, Joe Montes hit a hard shot off the UC third basemen to bring in Morgensen for a 4-3 edge.

The Finish
The very next UC at-bat, they loaded the bases with one out against freshman Hunter Cooley, but a beautiful defensive play nullified the comeback attempt. Jace Mercer, who had just homered the prior inning, lined out to a lunging Francisco Urbaez at second, and he was able to double off the Bearcat baserunner at first to keep the slim lead. Insurance came in the sixth, also with two away, when Eric Rivera singled in Urbaez, and Vince Coletti made the lead stand up, pitching three hitless innings with four punchouts for the save.

The Arms

Mike Ruff went 4 2/3 innings in his first start of 2019, striking out three
Cooley (1-0) earned the win with 1 1/3 scoreless, allowing two hits with a strikeout
Coletti's first FAU save saw only three baserunners reach against him, and 31 of 44 pitches he threw were for strikes

The Bats

Lambert and Urbaez each had two, of the Owls' eight, hits on the day
For Urbaez, those were his first two FAU hits
Each of the Owls' 1-5 hitters were on twice: Rivera, Lambert, Pages, Morgensen and Montes

Miscellaneous

With five runs on Sunday all coming with two outs, that made for all 22 runs scoring on the weekend coming in that manner
The Owls are 3-0 for the fifth straight season, and eighth time in the last nine years
FAU, as a team, hit .310 for the series with runners on base, and .467 with runners on and two outs
Further, the team hit .357 with runners in scoring position, and .526 with runners in scoring position and two outs
Cooley became the first freshman to pick up a win on the mound since March 11, 2017, when Ruff was the winner against Toledo

What's Next
FAU travels south on Wednesday night to take on Miami in Coral Gables, a 6 p.m. start. The Owls return home next weekend, hosting Illinois for a three-game set, beginning Friday. Tickets can be had by calling 1-866-FAU-OWLS or by visiting baseball's ticket website.