Baseball Edged Out on Road by UNF

Tuesday, February 26

Jacksonville, Fla.

6:05 PM

Florida Atlantic

3-5

North Florida

6-3

Florida Atlantic

North Florida

Photo by: JC Ridley/Owlpix.com

2/26/2019 10:23:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Down six, a Pedro Pages grand slam in the ninth made it dramatic, but North Florida held off the Florida Atlantic University baseball team on Tuesday night, 7-5 at Harmon Stadium.

Quotable

Head Coach John McCormack:
"We just couldn't make the play, pitch, or get the hit when it counted. We have got to get better in a hurry. I am proud of the guys fighting back in the ninth, but it was too little, too late. We look forward to tomorrow's opportunity to get better."

The Turning Point
UNF (6-3) scored twice in the first, and added one more in each of the second and third innings. The Owls (3-5) got on the board in the fifth, when Eric Rivera singled in Francisco Urbaez with two outs, and brought the tying run to the plate two different times in the sixth, and once more in the seventh. But the Ospreys added three more in the home seventh to make it 6-1.

The Finish
In the ninth, Wilfredo Alvarez reached on an infield single with one out, and Rivera singled to center on a line drive for his fourth hit of the night. A walk to Gunnar Lambert loaded the bases, and Pages rocketed a shot out to left for the first grand slam of his college career. An out later, Joe Montes singled to bring the tying run to the plate, but a flyout ended the drama.

The Arms

Hunter Cooley dropped to 1-2 with the loss, allowing three earned runs
Dylan Carter threw 2 1/3 innings for the second straight appearance, and was tremendous again, giving up just one hit with two strikeouts
Pitching the final two innings, also scoreless, was Jacob Josey. The only baserunner to reach against him, of seven, was on a walk

The Bats

Rivera notched the third four-hit game of his career, and raised his batting average 80 points in the process, to .306
Pages added a double as well, for his first two extra base hits of the season
Alvarez recorded his second straight two-hit game, and Urbaez had a double for the second consecutive game (and third of four)
Andru Summerall reached three times and now has a team-high on-base percentage of .472
The Owls had the leadoff batter reach in six of nine innings

What's Next

The finale in Jacksonville will begin at 3:05 p.m. Wednesday against the Ospreys. The team returns home Friday for the first of a three-game set against Monmouth, starting at 6:05 p.m. Tickets are available by calling 1-866-FAU-OWLS or by visiting baseball's ticket website.