Baseball Takes First Road C-USA Game, 9-6 Over UAB

Friday, March 22

Birmingham, Ala.

7:30 PM

Florida Atlantic

15-7, 4-0

UAB

10-13, 0-4

Florida Atlantic

UAB

Photo by: JC Ridley/Owlpix.com

3/23/2019 12:13:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Florida Atlantic University baseball moved to 4-0 in Conference USA play and won the team's ninth game in a row, defeating UAB on 9-6 Friday night at Regions Field.

Quotable

Head Coach John McCormack:
"It's a really good win on the road, first conference road victory on a Friday night dogfight. Offensively, it took a little while, but we came on. Mitchell Hartigan really gave us a spark I thought. We kept battling, were able to get some runs across, and we pitched enough. Credit to UAB, they kept fighting and I'm just glad we came out on top."

The Turning Point
UAB (10-13, 0-4 C-USA) scored three through the first four, and Mitchell Hartigan made it a two-run game with his first collegiate home run in the fifth. In the top of the sixth, a bases-loaded walk cut it to one, and Eric Rivera lofted a ball to left that went in and out of the fielder's glove to score three and give FAU their first lead.

The Finish
The teams traded runs the rest of the game, with Jared DeSantolo crushing a two-run homer in the FAU seventh, and Rivera and Francisco Urbaez notching RBI singles in the eighth. A run scored in the UAB ninth on a fielder's choice groundout, but shortstop Jacob Josey put a bow on it with a nice play on a ball up the middle for the 27th and final out.

The Arms

Blake Sanderson picked up his fifth win in as many decisions, striking out four and walking just one in 5 1/3
Vince Coletti relieved him and stranded two inherited runners in scoring position in the sixth
Similarly, in the eighth, Dylan O'Connell came on for Coletti, and with the bases loaded and two outs, induced a big inning-ending popout
Zach Schneider pitched the ninth in a non-save situation

The Bats

In addition to his first homer, Hartigan added a double, two walks and a career-best three runs scored. He now has a nine-game hitting streak, every game but his first appearance
Joining him with two hits were Andru Summerall and Gunnar Lambert. Both reached three times; each had a single, double and was hit by a pitch
DeSantolo scored twice, had two RBI and now has hit safely in 10 straight games (and reached in all of his last 12)
Eight of the nine FAU starters had at least a hit

What's Next

Game two against the Blazers begins at 3 p.m. Eastern on Saturday. Mike Ruff will take the ball for the Owls against UAB's Tanner Rusk. For tickets all FAU home games, call 1-866-FAU-OWLS or visiting baseball's ticket website.