Baseball Gets Off the Schneid with Win over Monmouth

Friday, March 1

Boca Raton, Fla.

6:30 PM

Florida Atlantic

4-6

Monmouth

1-6

Monmouth

Florida Atlantic

Photo by: JC Ridley/Owlpix.com

3/1/2019 10:53:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

BOCA RATON, Fla. – Four home runs – including a come-from-behind grand slam by Bobby Morgensen – accounted for all of the Owls' runs and propelled Florida Atlantic University baseball to an 8-5 win over Monmouth on Friday night, snapping the team's six-game losing streak in the process.

Quotable

Head Coach John McCormack:
"It was a good game, it's nice to get back on the right side of the win column. We hit some balls out of the park, I thought Sandy (Blake Sanderson) pitched good enough, and DC (Dylan Carter) did what he was supposed to do, so it was a good win. Good to be back in the win column."

Full Opening Statement from Coach Mac

The Turning Point
Monmouth (1-6) scored twice in the first, but the Owls (3-6) quickly erased the deficit after Eric Rivera doubled and Gunnar Lambert deposited a two-run home run to right in the bottom half. Another Hawk run scored in the second, and a fourth in the sixth, pushing the visitor's lead back out to 4-2. But in the home sixth, Pedro Pages and Andru Summerall singled, followed by a hit-by-pitch of Joe Montes to load the bases. Morgensen then blasted a towering shot out to right-center to give the Owls a lead they wouldn't relinquish.

The Finish
Insurance came in the form of back-to-back homers by Rivera and Lambert to lead off the bottom of the seventh. Though the Hawks added a two-out ninth-inning run, Dylan Carter induced a groundout to complete a three-inning save and break the Owls' losing streak.

The Arms

Blake Sanderson (2-0) got the win, going six innings for the third straight Friday. He struck out a career-high nine Hawks and, at one point, retired 10 in a row, and 12 of 13
Carter had his longest outing as an Owl, recording his first FAU save

The Bats

Morgensen's grand slam is the third in 10 games for FAU. The team had four slams in 62 total games in 2018
Lambert notched the first two-homer game by an Owl in the new year, and Rivera and Lambert posted the first back-to-back home runs of 2019
Lambert and Rivera combined for five hits in the top two spots in the lineup, of the team's nine; Friday marked Lambert's first three-hit game of the season and fifth multi-hit game, and Rivera's third multi-hit game in his last four
Rivera is hitting .500 over that span (9-for-18)
Montes extended his season-opening streak of reaching base to all 10 games

What's Next

Saturday is a 4 p.m. first pitch, with the mound matchup featuring Ryan Sandberg against Monmouth's Ryan Steckline. Get tickets by calling 1-866-FAU-OWLS or visiting baseball's ticket website.