Baseball Clinches Road Series with 10th Straight Win

Saturday, March 23

Birmingham, Ala.

3:00 PM

Florida Atlantic

16-7, 0

UAB

10-14, 0

Florida Atlantic

UAB

Photo by: JC Ridley/Owlpix.com

3/23/2019 6:34:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Florida Atlantic University baseball, for the second straight week, clinched a Conference USA set with a Saturday win, and will look for a series sweep again after topping UAB, 6-2. Saturday also marked the Owls' 10th straight victory, a plateau not reached since 11 consecutive wins in 2013.

Quotable

Head Coach John McCormack:
"Fantastic game by Mike Ruff, really impressive the way he threw. He was able to keep the ball down, threw his secondary pitch for strikes, kept them off-balance, and his velocity was good all through the game. Offensively, we did enough. Early, we had a ton of chances, and credit to UAB, they turned a couple of double plays to get them out of it. We were able to get the offense going, Andru (Summerall) had the big hit to score two and make it 5-1. It was a good win for us, anytime you win a series on the road, it's good."

The Turning Point
It was a 2-0 game when UAB (10-14, 0-5 C-USA) began the fifth getting a double and a walk, and advancing both into scoring position with just one out. The Blazers got on the board with a sacrifice fly, but Mike Ruff bore down for a groundout to keep the one-run edge. FAU (16-7, 5-0 C-USA) tacked on with a sac fly of their own in the sixth, and Ruff stranded a one-out walk with two strikeouts to wrap his final inning of work in the home half.

The Finish
The Owls got cushion with a three-run seventh, with all of the scoring coming with two outs. Andru Summerall laced a double to right-center to plate two, and Pedro Pages followed up by knocking Summerall in with an opposite-field single. Dylan Carter was great in relief, earning a three-out save and giving the Owls a chance for a Sunday sweep.

The Arms / The Gloves

Ruff scattered four hits in his six innings of work. He struck out seven, two off his career high
Carter's second save was three innings of three-hit, one-run relief
He helped himself out in the ninth, bringing in a comebacker to start a 1-4-3 double play
Pages gunned down the nation's leading basestealer, Jess Davis (26-of-29 coming into the game), to end the third. That's the junior catcher's ninth runner caught stealing this year

The Bats

Pages had a three-hit night, with a double and two singles, the RBI and a run scored
Summerall added a third RBI with a sac fly, scored twice, and was 2-for-3
Jared DeSantolo and Gunnar Lambert both had two hits; Joe Montes had a double, a walk, a two RBI
DeSantolo now has the Owls' longest hit streak of the season, at 11 games and counting. He's reached in 13 straight

What's Next

The finale Sunday begins at 1 p.m. Eastern (noon in Birmingham). It'll be Nick Swan starting for FAU against UAB's Tyler Gates. Next week, for four home games, and for all remaining contest at FAU Baseball Stadium, get tickets by calling 1-866-FAU-OWLS or visiting baseball's ticket website.