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BOCA RATON, Fla. - Florida Atlantic (30-20, 16-11) picked up a series win over the UALR baseball team (20-29, 10-17) with an 11-7 victory in Saturday's suspended game, but the Trojans bounced back with a 4-2 victory in the finale to avoid the sweep.
The victory in game three was UALR's first conference road win of the year, and sends the Trojans into the final week of the regular season with a two-game lead over Middle Tennessee and ULM for the eighth and final spot in the 2011 Sun Belt Tournament. UALR, which holds the tie breaker over both the Blue Raiders and the Warhawks, is in search of its first SBC Tournament appearance since 2003.
"It was a good team win for us today, and a win that we needed to stay in the playoff hunt. It puts us in good position heading into the final weekend of the regular season," said UALR head coach Scott Norwood. "We played pretty well this weekend overall, but weren't able to get the breaks to go our way. Calvin (Drinnen) pitched really well today and helped us get a win we really needed."
UALR wraps up the regular season next week (May 19-21) with a three-game series at Arkansas State.
UALR 4, Florida Atlantic 2 (game three)
Senior Calvin Drinnen (5-5) limited the Owls to eight hits and two runs over 7.0 innings to lead the Trojans to a 4-2 victory in the series finale. FAU had its chances in the 4-2 loss, but stranded 12 runners in the game and managed to score just one run in the three times it loaded the bases.
FAU left the bases loaded in the bottom of the eighth, and came away empty handed in the ninth after seeing its first two hitters reach base. Freshman Andrew Hohn came on at the start of the ninth looking to close out the win, but allowed a leadoff walk to Colby Gratton and a single to Raymond Church to open the inning.
The North Little Rock, Ark.-native bounced back to strike out cleanup hitter Dan Scheffler, and then got Church out on a 1-3-6 caught stealing. With a runner on third and two outs, Hohn got Alex Hudak to fly out to left to seal the 4-2 victory and pick up his second save of the year.
The Trojans tallied four of their six hits in the first inning to jump out to a 3-0 lead off FAU starter A.J. Alvarez (6-4). Junior Greg Garcia led things off with a single up the middle, the first of three-straight hits by the Trojans to open the game, and moved over to third as Alvarez committed a throwing error on a pickoff attempt at first. Sophomore Myles Parma plated the first run of the game with a RBI double to left center and scored from third moments later on a sacrifice fly to right by junior Nick Rountree.
UALR went on to load the bases with two outs on the board, and Alvarez hit senior Casey McCollum with a pitch to force across a run and give the Trojans a 3-0 lead.
FAU threatened to put together a first-inning rally of its own in the bottom half, as the Owls loaded the bases with one out off two singles and a hit batsman, but Drinnen got a pop up to short and a fly out to left to escape the jam unscathed.
Drinnen kept FAU out of the scoring column for the first four frames, and retired eight-consecutive batters after allowing a single to Mike Albaladejo in the bottom of the second. The Haysville, Kan.-native retired FAU in-order (1-2-3) in the third and fourth innings, but the Owls got on the board in the fifth after Albaladejo led things off with a double to left on a misjudged fly ball. Albaladejo scored on the next play as Andy Mee delivered a RBI single up the middle.
Alvarez cruised after a rocky first inning, holding the Trojans to just one hit over his next five frames. He left the game after the sixth inning with the Owls trailing 3-1, having racked up eight strikeouts while allowing five hits, three runs and three walks to the Trojans.
UALR extended its lead back to three runs, 4-1, in the top of the seventh after Parma hit a double off reliever Ahmed Garcia - his second of the game. Parma moved up to third on a sacrifice bunt by senior Jason Houston, and scored on another bunt by senior Jake Rowell after the Owls elected to intentionally walk Rountree.
FAU answered in the bottom half after loading the bases with one out off two singles and a walk. The Owls made it a 4-2 contest as Church lifted a sacrifice fly to center, but Drinnen induced an inning-ending 5-4-3 double play ball from Scheffler to preserve the two-run lead.
The Owls loaded the bases once again in the bottom of the eighth by drawing three walks, but came away empty handed for the second time in the game. Drinnen came back out to start the eighth, but left the game after issuing a leadoff walk to Hudak. Senior John Maler came on to pitch for the Trojans and recorded two fly ball outs around a pair of walks to load the bases with two outs on the board. The Devol, Okla.-native rebounded to get a ground ball from Mee and the Trojans got a force out at second to end the inning and leave the bases loaded.
Parma led the Trojans with a 2-for-5 effort and two runs scored in the win, while Church and Mee paced the Owls with two hits apiece.
Florida Atlantic 11, UALR 7 (game two)
UALR and FAU picked up Saturday night's weather-suspended game on Sunday at 12:40 p.m. (ET) in the bottom of the seventh with the Trojans trailing 9-7. FAU added to its lead by scoring a run in each of the next two frames, and the Trojans killed any chance of a comeback by hitting into a double play in the eighth and ninth innings.
FAU starter Paul Davis got the win to improve to 9-1 on the year, despite allowing 11 hits and seven runs (four earned) over 6.2 innings of work. UALR senior Garret Graziano (4-9) was tagged with the loss after surrendering seven hits and four runs over 3.2 innings in relief of starter Ryan Juris.
The Owls outhit the Trojans 15-to-13 in the win, led by three hits apiece from Dan Scheffler and Nick Bukovich, while Colby Gratton drove in a team-high three runs. Junior Nick Rountree paced the Trojans with a season-best 4-for-4 day at the plate, two doubles, two runs scored and two RBI.
UALR scored three unearned runs without registering a hit in the top of the first to jump out to an early 3-0 lead. Junior Greg Garcia drew a leadoff walk to start things off and FAU's Paul Davis committed an error on consecutive sacrifice bunts, the last of which allowed Garcia to score from second on a throwing error. Rountree plated sophomore Myles Parma with a sacrifice fly to center, and senior Jason Houston scored from third on a wild pitch moments later to give UALR a 3-0 edge.
FAU got on the board in the bottom half as walks to Andy Mee and Raymond Church set the stage for a run-scoring single through the left side by Scheffler. The Owls tied things up at 3-all in the bottom of the second as Gratton delivered a two-out, two-run single to right.
FAU tacked on two more runs in the third to take a 5-3 lead after Scheffler doubled and Alex Hudak singled to start things off. Nick Delguidice plated the go-ahead run with a sacrifice fly to center to give FAU a 4-3 lead and chase Juris from the game. Graziano came on in relief and surrendered a run-scoring single to Bukovich before inducing an inning-ending double play ball from Mike Albaladejo to end the inning and strand a runner at third.
Davis followed up a rocky first inning with three-straight shutout frames to help FAU build a 5-3 lead, but the Trojans put together a two-out rally in the fifth to tie things up at 5-all. Davis retired the first two batters of the inning, but Houston singled to center and Rountree and senior Jake Rowell delivered back-to-back RBI doubles to tie things up.
Graziano worked scoreless frames in the fourth and fifth, but FAU batted around in the sixth to push across four runs and take a 9-5 lead. Eddie Cassidy got things going with a leadoff solo homer to left, and the Owls tallied three more hits in the frame to build a four-run advantage.
Down by four, the Trojans manufactured a pair of runs in the top of the seventh to make it a 9-7 contest. Parma drew a leadoff walk from Davis and moved over to third on Rountree's second double of the game. Parma scored from third on a wild pitch, and Rowell plated Rountree moments later with a RBI single up the middle.
Junior Nick Grimmett came on to pitch at the start of the bottom half of the seventh, and was in the middle of his warm-up tosses when play was suspended at 6:22 p.m. The two teams returned to action Sunday at 12:40 p.m., and FAU managed to extend its advantage to four runs, 11-7, as the Owls' leadoff hitter singled and came around to score in the seventh and eighth. Mee worked the eighth and ninth innings for FAU, and prevented a Trojan comeback by inducing a double play ball in each frame.
