Owls Fall to Wichita State in American Tournament Play-In

Wednesday, May 20

Clearwater, Fla. / Baycare Ballpark

1 p.m.

Florida Atlantic

28-28

Wichita State

29-27

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Wichita State	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	2	3	6	0
Florida Atlantic	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	2	3	0

Photo by: (Ben Solomon/American Conference)

5/20/2026 7:14:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

CLEARWATER, Fla. – Florida Atlantic baseball (28-28) saw its season end on Wednesday with a 3-2 defeat to Wichita State (29-27) in an American Conference Tournament play-in game. The Shockers advance to the double-elimination bracket, where they will face Rice on Thursday.

THE BEGINNING
Hits were hard to come by for both teams on Wednesday. FAU starter James Litman struck out six Shocker hitters in the first four innings. On the other side, the Owls' offense managed two hits in three innings against WSU starter Matthew Cuccias. The Owls posted one of those hits in the second inning, in addition to two hit batters and a sacrifice fly by Brando Leroux to open the scoring.

Wichita State scraped across a run on two hits in the fifth to tie the game and spell the end of Litman's day. Kide Adetuyi would go on to pitch the next 4.1 innings.

THE TURNING POINT
The Owls regained the lead on a leadoff solo home run by John Martinez in the sixth. It stayed a 2-1 game until the top of the ninth.

Adetuyi induced a pop-up to right field from the leadoff hitter, but FAU outfielder Kyle Boylston lost it in the sun. That sparked a rally for the Shockers, who now had the tying run at second base. They would log two more singles in the inning, one to tie the game and another to take a 3-2 lead.

THE FINISH
Despite a two-out walk in the bottom of the ninth, the Owls could not mount a rally to extend the season another day.

THE BATS