Baseball, on Road For First Time, Tangles with Two Top Teams

Florida Atlantic Baseball in Tallahassee
Matchup Details	Tallahassee, Fla. \| Dick Howser Stadium vs. No. 2 Texas Tech Friday, Feb. 28 \| 2 p.m. at No. 9 Florida State Friday, Feb. 28 \| 6 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 29 \| 2 p.m.
Game Coverage	Friday vs. TTU: Free FAU Radio \| Live Stats Friday at FSU: ACC Network Extra ($) \| Live Stats Saturday at FSU: ACC Network Extra ($) \| Live Stats Twitter: @FAU_Baseball
Florida Atlantic Links	News \| Roster \| Schedule \| Game Notes
Texas Tech Links	News \| Roster \| Schedule
Florida State Links	News \| Roster \| Schedule

BOCA RATON, Fla. – After a 7-0 homestand to begin the 2020 campaign, the Florida Atlantic University baseball team in is Tallahassee this weekend to face two top-10 squads, No. 2 Texas Tech and No. 9 Florida State.

Baseball Video Feature

Owls' Weekend in Review
With three wins over Binghamton, FAU (7-0) has equaled their best start to a season since 2016, and would need a Friday sweep to match the 9-0 start of the 2007 Owls. Leftfielder Mitchell Hartigan earned the most recent league honor as Conference USA Co-Hitter of the Week and leads the team in multiple categories, including all of his split lines: .478/.594/.826 (batting average/on-base percentage/slugging percentage). The Owls as a team lead C-USA and are among the nation's leaders in walks (sixth in D1), OBP (also sixth), slugging (12th) and home runs (13th).

Owls' Weekend in Preview
Texas Tech (8-1), who was the top-ranked team in the country a week ago by both Collegiate Baseball and the NCBWA, is currently ranked as high as No. 2, by Baseball America (NCBWA now has the Red Raiders No. 3, Collegiate Baseball No. 4 and D1 Baseball No. 5). In 2019, TTU went 46-20, was Big 12 regular season champions, and advanced to finish as one of the final four teams of the College World Series.

Florida State (6-1) has a high-water ranking right now of No. 9 by D1 Baseball (they also come in at No. 11 by Collegiate Baseball and No. 12 by both Baseball America and NCBWA). The Seminoles were 42-23 last season, winning the Athens Regional, and ironically, saw their season come to a close in the CWS quarterfinal round at the hands of TTU.

Weekend Probable Starting Pitchers

Friday, Game One: FAU – Corey Ireson, RHP (1-0, 2.08) vs. TTU – Clayton Beeter, RHP (1-1, 4.50)
Friday, Game Two: FAU – Jacob Josey, RHP (0-0, 5.79) vs. FSU – C.J. Van Eyk, RHP (0-0, 1.04)
Saturday: FAU – TBD vs. FSU – Bryce Hubbart, LHP (0-1, 6.00)

Opponent History
The Owls and Red Raiders have never met. FAU and FSU, if it hadn't been for the aforementioned Athens Regionals, last battled in 1998. With the Seminoles' 13-7 win in Athens, FSU has a 9-1 all-time advantage in the series (FAU's only win came on March 19, 1997, by a 13-5 score).

Owls' Baseball on Social Media
Follow along with the team on Twitter @FAU_Baseball, on Instagram, and "like" FAU Baseball on Facebook.

After This
The Owls' stretch of games against ranked foes reaches five, when next week, the team plays host to both now-No. 1 Florida and No. 6 Miami. The game against the Gators is Tuesday, March 3 at FITTEAM Ballpark of the Palm Beaches (the only way to pre-purchase tickets for this game is by clicking HERE). The following night, it's the Owls vs. the Hurricanes at FAU Baseball Stadium, and tickets for that – as well as the weekend homestand against Northeastern – can be had by calling 1-866-FAU-OWLS or visiting FAU's baseball tickets website.

Calendar

Upcoming Events