Box Score BOCA RATON, Fla. - Florida Atlantic's Ryan Garton scattered six hits and held the Trojans (19-28, 9-16) to one run over 7.0 innings to lead the Owls (29-19, 15-10) to a 3-1 victory in the series opener at FAU Stadium. Dan Scheffler gave Garton all the run support he would need in the bottom of the first with a two-out, two-run homer to right, and Hugh Adams worked a perfect ninth inning to pick up his 10th save of the year.
UALR senior Travis Henke (1-4) was the hard luck loser on Friday night, despite limiting the Owls to six hits and three runs over 7.0 innings of work. Henke bounced back from Scheffler's two-out, two-run homer in the first with six-consecutive shutout innings. FAU threatened to add to its lead in the fifth and sixth innings after putting runners on the corners with one out in both frames, but the Jefferson City, Mo.-native worked his way out of the jam both times to strand runners at third.
Garton (5-3) opened with six scoreless innings before UALR got on the board in the top of the seventh to make it a one-run ballgame. Junior Cameron Bentley got things going with a leadoff single to left, and worked his way over to third with a stolen base and a wild pitch. Garton struck out the next two Trojans he faced, but junior Greg Garcia came through with a two-out single over third baseman Sean Bukovich's head to make it a 2-1 contest.
After holding FAU to four hits over the first seven innings, Henke came back out to start the eighth and was greeted by back-to-back singles by Nathan Pittman and Raymond Church. Freshman Andrew Hohn came on to pitch for Henke and struck out Scheffler before walking Alex Hudak to load the bases. FAU tacked on an insurance run as Nick Delguidice delivered a run-scoring single just past Garcia in shallow left center. Hohn followed Delguidice's single by striking out Eddie Cassady, and senior Garret Graziano came on to get a 4-3 groundout from Bukovich and leave the bases full.
Adams took the mound in the ninth and retired the Trojans in-order, with one strikeout, for his 10th save. Pittman and Church paced the Owls with two hits apiece, while Scheffler led all players with two RBI compliments of his fourth home run of the year. Junior Nick Rountree led the Trojan offense with a 2-for-3 day at the plate.
UALR and FAU return to action tomorrow afternoon at 3 p.m. (CT).
