Baseball Upended in Midweek Matchup with Miami

Wednesday, March 27

Boca Raton, Fla.

6:30 PM

Florida Atlantic

16-9

Miami

16-9

Miami

Florida Atlantic

Photo by: JC Ridley/Owlpix.com

3/27/2019 10:34:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

BOCA RATON, Fla. – The Florida Atlantic University baseball team trailed 7-0 to Miami before getting their first hit of the night. They cut it to 7-6 in the sixth and had the tying run 90 feet away, but after not plating it, gave up nine unanswered towards a 16-6 loss on Wednesday night at FAU Baseball Stadium.

Quotable

Head Coach John McCormack:
"Not a good night here at the ballpark for us. Extremely disappointed in the way we pitched, and we had some opportunities offensively ... the guys got themselves in some good counts, we had a shot there in the sixth. To make it 7-6, I thought the guys rallied. Credit to Miami, their relief pitching did what it was supposed to do, and we end up on the wrong side of (tonight).

Full Opening Statement from Coach Mac

The Turning Point
Miami (16-9) scored five in the first and two more in the second. The Owls (16-9) scraped back with one in the third, and two home runs in the fifth (a two-run opposite field shot by Mitchell Hartigan and solo blast by Gunnar Lambert), making it 7-4. Then, in the sixth, Joe Montes singled in two with two outs, cutting it to a one-run game. A walk and hit batter loaded the bases, but a groundout kept the potential tying run at third.

The Finish
From there, it was all Hurricanes. Five more came across in the seventh, three in the eighth and one in the ninth. The Owls were kept off the scoreboard for the remainder of the game, with just one hit off of three UM relievers.

The Arms

Ryan Sandberg (0-2) took the loss
Keeping the Owls in it were a pair of freshmen. Hunter Cooley came on with one out in the first, got the next two batters out, and allowed only two runs in 2 2/3 innings
Jon Jon Kostantis followed and was even more impressive, allowing only a hit in three frames. Both first-years struck out two batters
Wrapping the night was Dylan O'Connell, striking out the first two batters he faced and three in total, a new career high

The Bats

Montes had a double in addition to his two-run single, and scored a run
For Lambert, it was his fifth home run, and Hartigan his second
Hartigan has reached base in 13 straight; Pedro Pages now has a six-game hitting streak
Jacob Josey doubled for his first FAU extra base hit in the third, and scored on an Eric Rivera single

What's Next

FAU hosts FIU for a three-game conference series this weekend, starting Friday night at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are available by calling 1-866-FAU-OWLS or visiting baseball's ticket website.