UTSA Knots up Series with Baseball after Saturday Win

Saturday, May 11

San Antonio, Texas

5:00 PM

Florida Atlantic

33-17, 18-8

UTSA

24-26, 11-14

Florida Atlantic

UTSA

Photo by: JC Ridley/Owlpix.com

5/11/2019 8:52:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

SAN ANTONIO – The No. 24 Florida Atlantic University baseball team was held to a run on two hits as UTSA took the Saturday night matchup to even up the series by a 4-1 score.

Quotable

Head Coach John McCormack:
"Well, you have to give credit to their starter (Slater Foust), he pitched fantastic. Early in the game, we hit balls hard, we had some really good at-bats and the balls didn't fall. And then we got frustrated, and did exactly what they wanted us to do: we swung at a lot of pitches early, made a lot of early outs, and got him deeper into the game. On the other side, three of their four runs was a walk, hit by pitch or error to get them on base. If you do that, you can't win. Gotta be back at it tomorrow, certainly credit to UTSA today, but we've got to be better."

The Turning Point
After having been no-hit for 4 1/3 innings, Francisco Urbaez turned on a 3-1 pitch in the fifth to start the scoring, but the FAU (33-17, 18-8 Conference USA) lead was short-lived. As McCormack alluded to, the bottom half began with a walk, followed by an RBI double two batters later to tie it. Then in the sixth, it started with a hit by pitch, and then two consecutive UTSA (24-26, 11-14 C-USA) batters got on with sacrifice bunts that turned into errors. A two-run single gave the Roadrunners the lead to stay.

The Finish
The Roadrunners added another run in the seventh, and Foust continued to deal to make it hold up. After the Urbaez home run, and a Wilfredo Alvarez single that same inning, Foust issued only a one-out walk in the seventh, retiring 13 of the final 14 batters he faced in a complete-game victory.

The Arms

Mike Ruff (5-4) pitched into the sixth, and took the loss even though he allowed just two earned runs on four hits
Dylan O'Connell inherited two on with no one out in the sixth and retired the next three hitters. He would allow a run the next inning, but throw 1 2/3 innings of one-run ball
Dylan Carter got out of a bases-loaded jam that same frame, and threw a scoreless eighth as well

The Bats

Urbaez's home run was his eighth of the year, and first since April 6
With his single, Alvarez extended his hitting streak to eight games in a row. He had reached earlier on an error on a tough play at second
Eric Rivera was robbed of a leadoff home run on the very first pitch of the game

What's Next

Sunday's finale and rubber game is set to start at 12:30 p.m. Eastern from Roadrunner Field. The starting pitching matchup is TBD on both sides. With that, this road trip will conclude, and the next home matchup is Tuesday night (May 14) against UCF. Get tickets now by calling 1-866-FAU-OWLS or going to baseball's ticket website.