By: Tobey Schulman
NCAA Baseball Recap: Miami 5 – FAU 2
After dropping a conference series at home to Tulane over the weekend, FAU traveled down to Miami to attempt to snap the two game losing streak, and take the season long series three games to one. FAU would jump on the scoreboard early yet again, but Miami would come back to take the fourth and final game of the series, splitting the series two games a piece.
Jalen DeBose would help put the Owls on the board in the top half of the first inning. He would steal third and score on a throwing error after recording a double to give the Owls a 1-0 lead. Christian Adams and Patrick Ward would keep the early offensive success going, and an RBI single from Adams scored Ward to make it a 2-0 game. This would be all that would come of the FAU scoring, and they’d be shutout in the remaining eight innings.
Miami took the lead back in the fourth inning, putting up a three-spot to make the score 3-2. A pair of doubles from Daniel Cuvet and Edgardo Villegas helped give the Hurricanes the lead back. The Hurricanes would add two more runs, one in the fifth, and one in the seventh to extend their lead to 5-2, and that’s all they would need to secure the win over FAU.
Brandon Smith did his job for the Owls going three scoreless to start the game on the mound, but after Braden Ostrander came in, the Hurricanes would rally for the three run fourth inning. Ostrander was credited with the loss in Tuesday night’s game, and the Owls had to use five other pitchers in order to get out of the game.
It’s just been that type of stretch for FAU baseball. Getting into the last large stretch of the season, they’ll have to shake off this slump and put together some wins in AAC play against teams like UTSA and USF. They’ll still have midweek games that can be used to build some team momentum, such as their upcoming games against Florida and Florida Gulf Coast. With a 20-18 record, FAU still sits over .500 and look to snap their losing streak in Tampa against USF this weekend.