BOCA RATON, Fla. (April 12, 2015) – Ricky Santiago's sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 11th inning scored Kevin Abraham with the winning run as Florida Atlantic defeated FIU 5-4 Sunday afternoon in Boca Raton.
The Owls (28-8, 11-4 Conference USA) won the three-game series taking two of three games from the Panthers (16-20, 7-8 C-USA).
Abraham was hit by a pitch from
Danny Dopico (1-4) to start the bottom of the 11th. After a sacrifice bunt, a single and an intentional walk, Santiago drove a fly ball to deep left field off
Gianni Zayas that
Brian Portelli caught. However, the fly ball took Portelli too deep for a throw home.
Seth McGarry (4-1) pitched four scoreless relief innings to record the win. McGarry was the losing pitcher in the series opener Friday.
Chris Mourelle started for FIU and delivered another quality start. Mourelle pitched seven innings, allowed eight hits and three earned runs.
Portelli,
Edwin Rios and
Julius Gaines each went 3-for-5 for FIU. Portelli improved his team-leading batting average to .338. Rios hit his team-leading 11th home run to give the Panthers a 4-3 lead in the top of the seventh.
FIU returns home Friday to open a three-game series against WKU. The series opener Friday is at a special time 4 p.m.
##### Fans are encouraged to follow the Panthers on Twitter (@FIUBaseball) and become a fan on Facebook (Facebook.com/FIUBaseball) for all the latest FIU Baseball news. Follow all of FIU's 18 athletic teams on Twitter (@FIUAthletics), Facebook (Facebook.com/FIUSports), YouTube (FIUPanthers), and Instagram (FIUathletics). #####About FIU Athletics: FIU Athletics is home to more than 400 student-athletes in 18 different sports. Athletic events are played in seven different venues on FIU's campuses (Modesto A. Maidique and Biscayne Bay), including FIU Arena and Ocean Bank Field at FIU Stadium. About FIU: Florida International University is recognized as a Carnegie engaged university. Its colleges and schools offer more than 180 bachelor¹s, master¹s and doctoral programs in fields such as engineering, international relations, architecture, law and medicine. As one of South Florida¹s anchor institutions, FIU is Worlds Ahead in its local and global engagement, finding solutions to the most challenging problems of our time. FIU emphasizes research as a major component of its mission. FIU has awarded 200,000 degrees and enrolls 54,000 students in two campuses and three centers including FIU Downtown on Brickell and the Miami Beach Urban Studios. FIU is a member of Conference USA and has 400 student-athletes participating in 18 sports. For more information about FIU, visit http://www.fiu.edu.
