BOCA RATON, Fla. (April 11, 2015) – No. 16 Florida Atlantic used back-to-back doubles in the bottom of the fifth inning to spark an 8-3 comeback victory over FIU Saturday afternoon in the second game of a three-game weekend series in Boca Raton.
With the win the Owls evened the series and improved to 27-8 overall and 10-4 in Conference USA play. The Panthers dropped to 16-19 and 7-7 in C-USA.
Trailing 3-2 in the bottom of the fifth, Brendon Sanger launched an RBI double down the left field line off FIU starter
Andres Nunez to score Stephen Kerr, who singled with one out in the inning. The double tied the score 3-3. Cleanup batter Ricky Santiago followed with an RBI double into the right center field gap that scored Sanger to give the Owls a 4-3 lead.
Nunez went 5 1/3 innings, allowing eight hits and seven runs to fall to 4-3 on the season. Meanwhile , FAU reliever David McKay pitched four scoreless innings of one-hit ball and struck out four batters to improve to 2-0.
The Owls tacked on four runs in the bottom of the sixth inning helped by a couple of walks with the bases loaded and a wild pitch with the bases loaded. FAU had only one hit in the four-run sixth inning.
FIU had a couple of leads Saturday. The Panthers opened the scoring in the top of the first inning. After
Jack Schaaf walked,
Brian Portelli doubled to right center to score Schaaf. In the top of the third Schaaf and Portelli each singled. Schaaf scored on a sacrifice fly by
JC Escarra. Portelli scored on an RBI single by
Austin Rodriguez.
Schaaf was 2-for-3 and Portelli was 2-for-4 with his 29th RBI to tie
Edwin Rios for the team lead.
The rubber game of the series is Sunday at 12 p.m.?
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