Baseball Topped in Extras After Twice Tying It

Sunday, February 24

Boca Raton, Fla.

12:00 PM

Florida Atlantic

Illinois

Photo by: JC Ridley/Owlpix.com

2/24/2019 5:21:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

BOCA RATON, Fla. – The Florida Atlantic University baseball team was behind 5-0 and 9-5, coming back to tie the game twice, but a 10th-inning Illinois RBI single was the deciding run in an 11-10 series-ending loss on Sunday to the Fighting Illini.

Quotable
"Proud of our guys, they kept fighting," said Head Coach John McCormack. "It was a terrible start to the day with the five-spot in the top of the first, and as I told them, I've seen those days turn in to 8-, 10-, 12-nothing games. The guys kept fighting, but we've got to get better. We gave them way too many runs today … but congratulations to Illinois, they did what they were supposed to do."

The Turning Point
Illinois (6-0) did score five runs in their first turn, all with two outs, but the Owls (3-4) battled back with two in the first (on an Andru Summerall groundout and Bobby Morgensen single) and three more in the second (an Eric Rivera single, a wild pitch, and a Summerall single) to knot things up at 5-5. The Illini plated the next four, on three in the third and one more in the fourth, and still held a 10-8 advantage going into the home eighth.

The Finish
With two outs in the FAU eighth and the bases loaded, a gap single by Wilfredo Alvarez to left-center pushed both Joe Montes and Francisco Urbaez across for the second tie of the game, at 10-10. Each team went scoreless in the ninth, and the game-winner came in the 10th, on a one-out double, a passed ball, and a chopper for a single against FAU's drawn-in infield. The Owls went down in order in the bottom of the 10th to give Illinois the finale win.

The Arms

After the Illini had scored eight runs, Dylan Carter was pressed into duty in the third, with two on and two out. He induced a groundout, and would have a great bandaid performance of 2 1/3 innings, only giving up one run, on a sac fly, and striking out three
Jon Jon Kostantis pitched a scoreless sixth with two strikeouts
Another gutsy performance was turned in by Vince Coletti, going 3 1/3 innings and allowing one earned run with two K's
After the go-ahead run, Zach Schneider was called upon, and he retired both batters he faced

The Bats

Six Owls had multi-hit efforts towards the team's season high of 14 hits (and for that matter, Sunday's 10 runs)
Urbaez had his first three-hit game at FAU, and his first two-RBI game as well
Alvarez notched his first two-RBI game as well, and added two hits for the second time
On the season, those two are hitting .389 and .348, respectively
Jared DeSantolo had two doubles and knocked in a run on a sacrifice fly
Each of the top three hitters in the lineup had two-hit days: Rivera, Gunnar Lambert and Summerall, all going 2-for-5
All 10 Owls that batted reached base, and eight scored at least one run

What's Next
A brief two-game road set is next for the Owls, Tuesday and Wednesday in Jacksonville. They take on North Florida at 6:05 p.m. and 3:05 p.m., respectively, on those two days. After that is a 12-game homestand, spanning March 1-17, beginning on Friday night, March 1st, vs. Monmouth. Buy tickets at 1-866-FAU-OWLS or by visiting baseball's ticket website.