Baseball Season Concludes in Regional Semifinal Loss

Sunday, June 2

Athens, Ga.

12:00 PM

Florida Atlantic

41-21

Georgia

46-16

Georgia

Florida Atlantic

Photo by: Eric Espada/Owlpix.com

6/2/2019 4:00:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

ATHENS, Ga. – The Florida Atlantic University baseball team was eliminated from the Athens Regional on Sunday in a 13-0 loss to Georgia, wrapping the season with a 41-21 record and taking home the Conference USA regular season championship along the way.

Quotable

Head Coach John McCormack:
"Congratulations to Georgia. We knew we had to play a clean game (against the) No. 4 national seed and we got a zero in the first and I was hoping we could get some runs. I'm sure they were under some pressure, but that guy (Georgia pitcher Tim Elliott) pitched fantastic. He kept us off-balance all day and then their offense capitalized. I thought Mike (Ruff) did okay, made three or four bad pitches and they capitalized on him, and then it just kind of got away from us and Georgia got it rolling. Congratulations to them."

Full Opening Statement from Coach Mac

The Turning Point
Georgia (46-16) got the scoring started in the third, when with two outs, Aaron Schunk hit the first of his two home runs on the day, a two-run shot. The Bulldogs added three more on another home run in the fourth.

The Finish
As his Bulldog bats staked him to the lead, Tim Elliott held FAU (41-21) to two hits – and baserunners – on the day, just one over the minimum. Andru Summerall had a clean one-out single to left in the fourth (but was erased on a double play), and Wilfredo Alvarez drilled a two-out double down the rightfield line in the sixth. But that's all the Owls would get. Elliott retired the final nine in order for the complete game win.

The Arms

Mike Ruff took the loss to finish his junior year at 6-5
Following Vince Coletti, in his final appearance as an Owl (the 35th of his senior year, fourth on the all-time list), Eric Keating threw a perfect 1-2-3 ninth
In addition to Coletti, senior pitchers wrapping up their Owl careers are Jordan Poore, Blake Sanderson, Zach Schneider and Nick Swan

The Bats

Summerall finished his redshirt sophomore year at .295, a career best and 82 points higher than his debut season
Alvarez notched his eighth double and finished his first season with the squad with a .320 average (one of seven regulars above the .300 plateau)
Those two should be back next season as building blocks for 2020, but the program bids farewell to five hitters that all made their final appearance in an Owl uniform on Sunday: Diamond Johnson, Gunnar Lambert, Joe Montes, Richie Nizza and Jacob Pino

What's Next

The 2019 campaign is in the books, but the Owls reached the 40-plus-win plateau in back-to-back years for the first time since 2003-04 (and the first time in John McCormack's tenure). For the seniors and potentially some draft-eligible juniors, the 2019 MLB Draft begins Monday with the first two rounds (78 picks, including some compensatory and competitive balance selections), and continues into Tuesday (rounds 3-10, starting at 1 p.m.) and Wednesday (rounds 11-40, beginning at noon).

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Team Stats

Pitching:

W: Tim Elliott (7-3)

L: Ruff, Mike (6-5)

Georgia

Batting:

2B: LJ Talley 2 ; Cam Shepherd 1

HR: Aaron Schunk 2 ; John Cable 1 ; Cam Shepherd 1 ; Connor Tate 1

RBI: Aaron Schunk 6 ; LJ Talley 1 ; John Cable 2 ; Cam Shepherd 1 ; Connor Tate 3

Base Running:

RUNS: Tucker Maxwell 1 ; Randon Jernigan 1 ; Riley King 1 ; Aaron Schunk 2 ; LJ Talley 1 ; John Cable 1 ; Cam Shepherd 2 ; Mason Meadows 2 ; Connor Tate 2