Sanderson’s Complete Game, Early Offense Leads Baseball to Friday Win

Friday, March 8

Boca Raton, Fla.

6:30 PM

Florida Atlantic

7-7

Northeastern

5-7

Northeastern

Florida Atlantic

Sanderson’s Complete Game, Early Offense Leads Baseball to Friday Win

3/8/2019 10:06:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

BOCA RATON, Fla. – The Florida Atlantic University baseball team scored six runs in their first three at-bats, and coupled with a nine-inning effort by starter Blake Sanderson, took the opener of a three-game set against Northeastern on Friday night, 7-4.

Quotable

Head Coach John McCormack:
"I thought it was a good win. Friday night, Sandy (Blake Sanderson) does his thing again, pitched really well. We had a decision there in the eighth, do we let go back out for the ninth? I thought he earned it, give him a chance to get a complete game … (and) I thought our offensive approach in the first three or four innings was really good."

Full Opening Statement from Coach Mac

The Turning Point
The Owls (7-6) loaded the bases in each of the first two innings and came out with four runs, and a Joe Montes opposite-field homer in the third ballooned things out to 6-0. A couple of sterling defensive plays by Northeastern (5-7) kept it from being worse, including in the second, when a likely grand slam by Francisco Urbaez was pulled back in on a catch over the fence by leftfielder Corey DiLoreto.

The Finish
Though the Huskies had two-run homers in the sixth and ninth (sandwiched around some insurance in the FAU eighth when Gunnar Lambert notched his second RBI of the night), Sanderson was able to finish out an efficient 108-pitch effort for the Owls' first complete game in over a year.

The Arm

Sanderson threw four perfect innings (first, fourth, fifth and seventh), and had 10 pitches or less in five frames (first, second, third, seventh and ninth)
He struck out five and walked zero, and six of the eight scattered NU hits were singles
Friday marked the first complete game by an FAU pitcher since Jake Miednik last season (March 2, 2018, pitching all eight innings in a 2-1 loss on the road at Oregon), and the first CG victory since Alex House the year prior (April 14, 2017, defeating Marshall at home, 7-3)

The Bats

Eric Rivera had three hits in his first three at-bats, all coming in the first three innings
Montes, in addition to his first home run of 2019, added a single
Lambert also had two hits, reached on a walk, and had two RBI
Pedro Pages was on three times, including two walks
The runs batted in in the first inning came on an Andru Summerall fielder's choice, an Urbaez groundout, and a two-out double by Jared DeSantolo
The run in the second came when Lambert singled in Mitchell Hartigan; Lambert's RBI single in the eighth scored Wilfredo Alvarez

What's Next

The second of three against the Huskies goes off at 4 p.m. Saturday, with the starting pitching matchup slated to be Mike Ruff against Northeastern's Brandon Dufault. Tickets are available by calling 1-866-FAU-OWLS or visiting baseball's ticket website.