Baseball Posts Two Wins to Start the 2020 Season

Friday, February 14

Boca Raton, Fla.

6:30 PM

Florida Atlantic

1-0

Delaware

0-1

Delaware

Florida Atlantic

Photo by: Jim Rassol/Owlpix.com

2/15/2020 9:18:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

BOCA RATON, Fla. – The Florida Atlantic University baseball team came out of Saturday with two wins over Delaware, completing Friday night's suspended game with an 8-4 win, before dispatching the Blue Hens in the nightcap, 9-5. The Owls (2-0) reached base in all 16 innings at the plate, posting a combined 21 hits and having batters reach base 22 times otherwise.

Quotable

Head Coach John McCormack:
"It's Opening Weekend, we've had a lot of weather, guys have done a great job taking the tarp off, putting it on … but I'm really proud of the guys, a lot of people don't understand what they go through to play college baseball. We had some guys really step up too, on the field. It's good to see Mike Entenza and Jon Jon (Kostantis), they did a really nice job. BJ (Murray) carried us in the first game and (Jacob) Josey was spectacular and then of course got rained out. We need to clean some things up, but (for) Opening Weekend and a long day today, I thought we did a nice job."

Full Opening Statement from Coach Mac

The Turning Point – Game One
The Owls already held a 5-0 lead before rain stopped play on Friday night, including a four-run second inning that was highlighted by a two-run double by BJ Murray. When play resumed Saturday, Mitchell Hartigan hit a two-out RBI single that immediately preceded yet another delay.

The Finish – Game One
Murray clobbered a two-run home run in the sixth, and though UD (0-2) scored three times in the seventh, Evan Waterbor came on to get the game's final eight outs to wrap up 2020 win No. 1.

The Arms – Game One

Jacob Josey started on Friday, and allowed just a home run among four hits in four innings. He struck out four and did not walk a batter
Picking up the win in his FAU debut was Adrien Reese (1-0), pitching two scoreless frames, with only one batter reaching against him
Waterbor inherited second and third with one out in the seventh, retiring both batters in that inning. He pitched a 1-2-3 eighth and worked around a leadoff single in the ninth to close things out

The Bats – Game One

Murray – who had three hits and three RBI in all of 2019 as a freshman – had three hits and five RBI in the opening game of 2020
He finished a triple away from the cycle, and, for the second straight year, hit FAU's first home run of the season
Four Owls had two hits apiece: Bobby Morgensen, Mitchell Hartigan, Nicholas Toney and Wilfredo Alvarez

Game time note: The opener had a 52 minute rain delay on Friday night before suspending the game. It resumed Saturday right at 1:30 p.m. for Hartigan's at-bat, and then immediately there was another delay, lasting 49 minutes. Factoring in the 1:41 of delays, the game lasted a total of 4:17.

The Turning Point – Game Two
UD got on the board with three unearned runs in their first turn, but the Owls chipped away on a Hartigan leadoff (and absolute no-doubt) homer in the second, and took the lead for good with four in the third. The go-ahead runs batted in came courtesy of a Jared DeSantolo seeing-eye single, the opposite way, plating two.

The Finish – Game Two
FAU added on with two each in the fifth and sixth, and the combination of Jon Jon Kostantis and Mike Entenza made the lead hold up. Kostantis threw three scoreless before giving way to Entenza in the seventh; the junior newcomer would wrap things up with 2 2/3 innings of one-hit shutout baseball, including a stretch where he struck out five consecutive Blue Hens.

The Arms – Game Two

Kostantis (1-0) recorded the win in relief of Matt Sparling
The sophomore righthander had perfect innings in the fourth and sixth, and was helped out by a double play in the fifth
Entenza gave up just one hit in his stint, and retired the last seven batters of the game

The Bats – Game Two

Only Hartigan had a multi-hit effort in the nightcap, but there were five Owls that each drew two walks (Hartigan, Morgensen, Andru Summerall, Murray and DeSantolo)
On the day, Hartigan reached base seven times. He scored three runs in the latter game
All told in game two, the Owls got on via 11 walks, had three batters hit by a pitch, and there were four UD errors. Every Owl reached at least twice

What's Next

FAU and UD wrap things up on Sunday at noon, with the pitching matchup of Corey Ireson versus Mike Biasiello.