Baseball Comeback Falls Short in Tuesday Slugfest with UCF

Tuesday, May 14

Boca Raton, Fla.

6:30 PM

Florida Atlantic

UCF

Photo by: Eric Espada/Owlpix.com

5/14/2019 11:31:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

BOCA RATON, Fla. – The Florida Atlantic University baseball team trailed 7-0, and battled back to tie the game at 8-8, but was unable to ever take the lead and would eventually fall on Tuesday night to UCF, 13-10.

Quotable

Head Coach John McCormack:
"Congratulations to UCF, they swung the bat well. I thought our guys swung the bat well, we've just got to pitch better. This whole game is on the mound, and we've got to do a better job. But we've got to also put it behind us, we've got a lot of stuff going on this weekend. I just told the team, you're a good team, good teams bounce back. These Tuesday night things, they get away from you sometimes. I was proud of the way the guys, down 8-0, battled back. Had a chance to take the lead, but then credit to UCF, they did what they were supposed to do."

Full Opening Statement from Coach Mac

The Turning Point
UCF (32-19) scored four times in their first at-bat and added three more in the third. A five-spot for FAU (34-18) cut it momentarily to two, just before the Knights pushed it out to 8-5 with a run in the fourth. Three run-scoring singles in the FAU fifth tied it, and the Owls had the go-ahead run at second, but the next two were retired, and UCF went back out ahead for good on a three-run home run in the sixth.

The Finish
The Owls didn't go away, with a run in each of the sixth and seventh innings to make it a one-run game again. Again, UCF would have an answer, as Dalton Wingo's third home run of the game, a two-run shot, wrapped the scoring. The last two FAU at-bats saw just one runner reach, a one-out hit-by-pitch in the ninth, as the Knights took the midweek affair.

The Arms

Michael Schuler (3-1) suffered his first collegiate loss, allowing the sixth-inning home run
Eric Keating was efficient right after him, getting that frame's final out, plus a scoreless seventh
Retiring all five batters he faced, as the final Owl pitcher of the night, was Dylan O'Connell. His perfect night needed just 17 pitches (12 strikes), with a punchout

The Bats

The Owls had 17 hits, led by Pedro Pages with four, including his sixth home run of the season. He had three RBI
The top two batters in the lineup, Eric Rivera and Bobby Morgensen, each had three hits. Rivera scored three times and Morgensen twice; Morgensen knocked in two
Mitchell Hartigan also had two RBI and a two-hit night, a single and a double
Wilfredo Alvarez extended his streak of reaching safely to 10 games with two walks, scoring twice

What's Next

The final regular season series sees the Owls host Middle Tennessee, with first pitch at 6:30 p.m. on both Thursday and Friday, and a 1 p.m. start Saturday afternoon. For tickets, call 1-866-FAU-OWLS or go to baseball's ticket website.