Baseball Wins Eighth Out of Nine To Head Into C-USA Play

Wednesday, March 13

Boca Raton, Fla.

6:30 PM

Florida Atlantic

11-7

Quinnipiac

4-8

Quinnipiac

Florida Atlantic

Photo by: JC Ridley/Owlpix.com

3/13/2019 11:04:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

BOCA RATON, Fla. – A four-run second inning by the Owl bats and 6 1/3 innings of one-run relief gave the Florida Atlantic University baseball team a 7-4 win and two-game sweep of Quinnipiac, on Wednesday night. With Rice on the horizon this weekend to open up the Conference USA schedule, the Owls have won eight of their last nine games.

Quotable

Head Coach John McCormack:
"Good Wednesday night game, good win. I thought the relief pitching was really, really good. (Quinnipiac) got off to a good start, scored in the first four innings, I thought DC (Dylan Carter) settled down, (Vince) Coletti was really good, and Zach (Schneider) did what he needed to do and got the save."

Full Opening Statement from Coach Mac

The Turning Point
The Bobcats (4-7) held a 2-1 leading through an inning and a half, but it didn't take long for the Owls (11-7) to tie, and then take a lead they wouldn't relinquish. Joe Montes walked to lead off the home second, and came in on a Bobby Morgensen double to right-center. Diamond Johnson's bunt single forced a bad throw as well, with Morgensen scoring, and Nicholas Toney delivered his first college hit and RBI to plate Johnson. With two outs, a Mitchell Hartigan triple made it a 5-2 Owl advantage.

The Finish
Though Quinnipiac scored once in both the third and fourth, that was all they'd get for the remainder of the game. Nursing the one-run lead, FAU added two two-out runs in the eighth, on another extra-base hit by Hartigan, a double bringing both Richie Nizza and Eric Rivera in. Zach Schneider got two out before two reached in the ninth, and was aided by a diving catch in center by Johnson to seal it.

The Arms/The Gloves

Eric Keating drew his first college start, and a big help for him was a double play with the bases loaded in the first. Shortstop Jacob Josey took it himself to the second base bag and fired to first to end the inning
More backup came in the second when Keating's batterymate, Toney, picked off a runner that strayed too far off second
With two out in the third, Dylan Carter came on and got a fielder's choice to strand a runner. He would go 2 1/3 innings, allowing a run on three hits, and picked up his first Owl decision to go to 1-0
Vince Coletti threw three innings of no-run baseball and had four strikeouts. Both hits against him were retired on the basepaths, as he faced the minimum of nine hitters
In the seventh, Toney cut down a Bobcat runner trying to steal, and in the eighth, another Josey-started double play (from he to Urbaez to Gunnar Lambert) was another key defensive moment
Schneider got his fourth straight save in his last four appearances, turning in a scoreless ninth

The Bats

The Owls tied the game early. After a QU run in the top half, Urbaez hit his team-leading fifth home run with two outs in the home first. He later walked and added a single as well
Hartigan's two extra base hits, the triple and double, notched him a career-best three RBI
Johnson reached three times, with a single, walk and hit-by-pitch
Rivera scored two runs out of the leadoff slot and extended his hitting streak to seven games with a single in the eighth

What's Next

It's FAU and Rice in the first C-USA series of the season this weekend. First pitch Friday is 6:30 p.m., Saturday is 4 p.m. and Sunday begins at noon. Purchase tickets by calling 1-866-FAU-OWLS or visiting baseball's ticket website.