Baseball Wins in Extras to Take Another C-USA Series on a Saturday

Saturday, April 6

Charlotte, N.C.

2:00 PM

Florida Atlantic

22-9, 10-1

Charlotte

12-17-1, 3-7-1

Florida Atlantic

Charlotte

Photo by: JC Ridley/Owlpix.com

Baseball Wins in Extras to Take Another C-USA Series on a Saturday

4/6/2019 7:50:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – For the fourth straight weekend, the Florida Atlantic University baseball team has posted conference wins on both Friday and Saturday, beating Charlotte in 13 innings in a come-from-behind 10-6 win on Saturday night to clinch another league series.

Quotable

Head Coach John McCormack:
"A fantastic win, the guys played well, very proud of them. (Zach) Schneider was stellar in five innings of relief. The offense broke out in the top of the 13th with a home run and a big two-out single. It was a total team effort today, a good day for us."

The Turning Point
After FAU (22-9, 10-1 Conference USA) scored four in the fifth for a 5-2 lead, Charlotte (12-17-1, 3-7-1 C-USA) scored four of their own in the sixth to regain the advantage. The Owls then tied it with two outs in the eighth when Pedro Pages rapped his fourth hit of the game into leftfield to score Mitchell Hartigan. The 49ers put the first runner on in the bottom of the ninth, and advanced him to third with just one out, but Zach Schneider wriggled out of the jam to send it to extras.

The Finish
It was dueling zeroes in the 10th, 11th and 12th, before the Owls broke through in the 13th. With one out, Francisco Urbaez roped a no-doubt home run to left, and both Pages and Summerall were hit by a pitch. Charlotte turned to the bullpen and got a second out, but a fielding error loaded the bases and extended the inning, allowing Richie Nizza to single in two for some cushion. Another run scored on another error, and Schneider worked around a one-out single and error in the bottom half to close out five innings of shutout ball.

The Arms

Mike Ruff struck out seven in 5 2/3 innings in a no-decision
Three relievers combined for 7 1/3 scoreless frames. Dylan Carter was first, then Jon Jon Kostantis got the last out of the seventh and worked into the ninth
Schneider allowed just three hits and didn't walk a batter in five. He struck out four and threw 80 percent of his 65 pitches for strikes

The Bats

Pages was 4-for-6, matching his career best in hits and falling just one short with four RBI while scoring twice
He had a single in the third, a run-scoring single in the third, a two-run double in the sixth and the tying RBI in the eighth
Urbaez's seventh home run was his third hit of the day, 3-for-6, and he added two runs scored and two RBI
With two hits, towards the Owls' season high of 18, were Eric Rivera, Hartigan, Bobby Morgensen, and Nizza off the bench

What's Next

The finale begins at noon on Sunday, with the Owls going for their third conference sweep. Next Friday, April 12, the team hosts Louisiana Tech, and for tickets, call 1-866-FAU-OWLS or go to baseball's ticket website.