By: Tobey Schulman
NCAA Baseball Recap: Miami 14 – FAU 6
After dropping back to back ACC series to top ten opponents Clemson and Duke, Miami looked to get back on track against FAU, after dropping a midweek game to the Owls the week prior. The previous two meetings between these two teams went both in favor of FAU, and they came into the game at Coral Gables looking to take their third straight victory against the Hurricanes. Beating a team three times in a row is always a challenge, and Miami was able to chip away at their series deficit to snap their six game losing streak, and take the midweek game 14-6.
Brandon Smith got the start for the Owls after his last start against Miami went well for him and FAU. This time around however, the Hurricanes got to Smith. Daniel Cuvet would get the Hurricanes on the board in the first with a two run home run, and Lucas Costello would make it a 3-0 game in the second after an RBI double.
The Owls would attempt to erase the early lead in the third, when Patrick Ward recorded a sacrifice fly out to cut the lead to 3-1. Jason Torres would come up for Miami in their half of the third, and lengthen the lead even more, when a groundout brought in another run to give the Hurricanes a three run lead yet again.
Miami would come up in the fourth and put up a three spot, to extend their lead to 7-1. JD Urso, Edgardo Villegas, and Daniel Cuvet would each tally RBI’s in the fourth inning rally. There would be no score in the fifth, but FAU would wake the bats back up in the sixth. Brando Leroux got his bat back on track and recorded an RBI double, and Carter Brady would record a sacrifice fly out that scored another run to make it a 7-3 game.
Everytime the Owls tried to get the bats going, Miami came back with even more offense. After FAU’s two-run sixth, Miami would put up seven more runs between the sixth and eighth innings. Lucas Costello put this game out of reach with a three-run home run in the seventh that gave Miami a 12-3 lead. Miami would go on to score two more runs and while FAU put up three more, it wasn’t nearly enough and the Owls dropped their second straight game 14-6.
Miami now cuts FAU’s series lead to 2-1 on the season. They’ll play one more game against Miami this season, and will look to take the series three games to one. FAU’s record now sits at 18-12, and they’ll travel up to Wichita to take on Wichita State for their fourth AAC conference series.