Six-Run Eighth, Walkoff in Ninth Equals 5-0 Start for FAU Baseball

Friday, February 21

Boca Raton, Fla.

6:30 PM

Florida Atlantic

5-0

Binghamton

0-4

Binghamton

Florida Atlantic

Six-Run Eighth, Walkoff in Ninth Equals 5-0 Start for FAU Baseball

2/21/2020 10:44:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

BOCA RATON, Fla. – Florida Atlantic University baseball trailed 8-2 going into their next-to-last at-bat, in the bottom of the eighth. A half-hour and seven batters later, it was tied, and a walkoff sacrifice fly in the ninth propelled the Owls to 5-0 after their 9-8 Friday night win over Binghamton.

Quotable

Head Coach John McCormack:
"An exciting game, I'm happy we won, but we didn't play well. We made a fair amount of mistakes both on the mound and in the field, and the offense bailed us out … The guys really, really showed some heart, (including) Alex Arauz with the three-run homer. In the end, the Owls win, and that's a good thing.

Full Opening Statement from Coach Mac

The Turning Point
BU (0-4) put up consecutive three-run innings in the sixth and seventh to take an 8-2 lead, and at that point, had held the FAU (5-0) offense to two runs on three hits. But, back-to-back singles to start the eighth by Francisco Urbaez and Wilfredo Alvarez preceded a Bobby Morgensen double to score them both; Mitchell Hartigan cut it to three with an RBI single; and Alex Arauz tied it with a three-run blast to left.

The Finish
Mike Entenza threw a 12-pitch, 1-2-3 top of the ninth, setting up the bottom half. A walk to Morgensen, and hit-by-pitch of Andru Summerall put the first two on, with Morgensen advancing to third on a deep flyout by BJ Murray. Then Hartigan hit a sinking liner to right that was ruled a catch, with Morgensen tagging and scoring the game-winner.

The Arms

Jacob Josey pitched into the sixth in the longest start by an Owl on the young season
After the Bearcats had moved ahead by six, Zach Asnes came on to get the last out of the seventh to strand another potential run
In his FAU debut, the righthander then pitched a scoreless eighth, including his first-ever strikeout as an Owl
Entenza (2-0) went strikeout-flyout-groundout in his perfect ninth to pick up the win for the second straight game

The Bats

Arauz's second home run of the season came as part of a four-RBI night, as he had doubled in Hartigan in the fifth as well
Hartigan reached that inning on FAU's first hit of the game, a triple into centerfield. He finished 2-for-3 with two runs scored and the game-winning RBI
Urbaez, Alvarez and Morgensen all extended their hit streaks to all five games this year
FAU hitters drew as many walks on the night – eight – as hits, with five of their eight hits coming in the eighth

What's Next

The middle matchup with the Bearcats will begin at 4 p.m. Saturday, with the pitching matchup of Corey Ireson for FAU against BU's Jack Collins.