Baseball Records Sweep for Second Consecutive Weekend

Sunday, March 10

Boca Raton, Fla.

12:00 PM

Florida Atlantic

9-7

Northeastern

5-9

Northeastern

Florida Atlantic

Photo by: JC Ridley/Owlpix.com

3/10/2019 3:48:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

BOCA RATON, Fla. – A classic pitcher's duel saw Mike Ruff and the Florida Atlantic University baseball team come out victorious Sunday, 2-1, to wrap a three-game sweep of Northeastern at FAU Baseball Stadium.

Quotable

Head Coach John McCormack:
"Fantastic game today. Those close games, it's really important for us to get a win like this going into conference play, and of course, with the two midweek games before that. It was nice: the pitching, (Mike) Ruff goes seven, (Vince) Coletti goes one, (Zach) Schneider puts it away. And we did enough offensively. Great way to cap off the weekend, really proud of the guys. Certainly hope this is a springboard to get us rolling."

The Turning Point
Ian Fair of Northeastern (5-9) led off the game with a solo home run, but Ruff retired the next 13 in a row, into the fifth, and stranded at least a runner in each of his last three innings. The two he left on in the seventh proved to be vital, as the FAU (9-7) offense finally capitalized in the bottom half. Mitchell Hartigan led off with a double and was sacrificed successfully to third by Jacob Josey. A liner up the middle by Eric Rivera tied it, and an out later, he came all the way around from first on Francisco Urbaez's double into the leftfield corner to give the Owls a 2-1 lead.

The Finish
Vince Coletti came on to pitch the eighth, and the leadoff batter reached against him on a single. But with one out, Pedro Pages blocked a pitch in the dirt and fired a strike to retire that baserunner, and Coletti struck out the NU batter on the very next pitch. There was less drama in the ninth, as Zach Schneider recorded his second save in as many days with, again, a 1-2-3 frame.

The Arms

Ruff was fantastic after the leadoff homer. A double snapped his streak, but he got the next two batters in the fifth; he allowed just a two-out single in the sixth but then induced a groundout with the runner at second; and with two on and two out in the seventh, got another groundout to keep it a 1-0 game
Needing just 86 pitches, the junior righthander scattered four hits, struck out five and did not walk a batter
Coletti picked up the hold and Schneider the save
After a 10-pitch effort Saturday, Schneider only dealt 16 offerings in the finale, getting a groundout and two strikeouts to close out the sweep

The Bats

Rivera continues to be red-hot, notching his fifth straight multi-hit game (going 2-for-4) and knocking in the tying run while scoring the winning run
Urbaez had two hits in three at-bats, plus a walk, and picked up his first game-winning RBI as an Owl
Jared DeSantolo reached three times and now has a six-game hitting streak
For Hartigan, it was his first collegiate extra-base hit

What's Next

The Owls stay home for five more, including a two-game set this midweek hosting Quinnipiac. Gametimes are 6:30 p.m. on both Tuesday and Wednesday. Get tickets by calling 1-866-FAU-OWLS or visiting baseball's ticket website.