By: Tobey Schulman
Preview: FAU vs Maimi
FAU takes on Miami for the second time this season at FAU Baseball Stadium Tuesday night. The Owls are coming off of a series win over Memphis, which improved their AAC conference record to 4-2. While this game won’t go towards their conference record, the Owls look to improve their 16-9 record this season, and pick up their second win over the Hurricanes.
For the Owls, when the bats have been hot they don’t seem to stop. The Owls put up 10+ runs in two of the three games in the series at Memphis, including tying the program single game home run record, with seven home runs tallied in game two.
For the offense, Christian Adams and Emilio Gonzalez have been hot lately. Both hit two home runs in the game two seven home run performance. Gonzalez also helped the Owls in securing their game three win on Saturday, recording two more RBIs in the series rubber match.
The Hurricanes come into the series with a 15-12 record, looking to improve upon it after their series loss against Clemson. A player to watch from Miami would be Daniel Cuvet, who hit a home run against the Owls in their previous matchup. He leads Miami in multiple hitting categories including home runs and RBIs with nine home runs, and 31 RBIs.
FAU will elect to start right hander Brandon Smith. Smith has appeared in seven games this season, but this will be his first time getting the start. Smith possesses a 10.22 ERA going into this game, and looks to improve upon it with this start. The Owls bullpen will be needed today, and will need to stay strong like they’ve been able to all year to secure another win over Miami.
The Owls face a very good East Carolina team this weekend following their matchup against Tuesday. ECU is currently ranked #12 on the D1Baseball.com Top 25 rankings. This mid-week matchup is a perfect opportunity for FAU to get their offense going before the arrival of ECU. With both FAU and ECU sporting 4-2 AAC records, this upcoming series is big for implications later in the season.