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SERIES THREAD: Arkansas-Little Rock @ FAU - May 03-05, 2013

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What:      Arkansas-Little Rock (22-22, 8-13) at Florida Atlantic (27-17, 12-9)

When:      Fri,  May 3rd at 6:30 PM
                Sat, May 4th at 4:00 PM
                Sun, May 5th at 10:30 AM

Where:    FAU Baseball Stadium

Audio:      Here

Stats:      Here


Series:      Dropping 2-of-3 last season (1-4, 2-9, 12-8), the Owls trail the Trojans 8-9 in the all time series.


Projected Starting Pitchers:

Fri:          UALR - RHP Chance Cleveland (5-6, 2.59 ERA)
              FAU - LHP Austin Gomber (4-4, 2.92 ERA)

Sat:        UALR - LHP Travis McDonald (1-2, 4.15 ERA)
              FAU - RHP Jeremy Strawn (3-2, 3.23 ERA)

Sun:        UALR - RHP Blake Huffman (5-3, 4.18 ERA)
              FAU - RHP Kyle Miller (3-0, 2.08 ERA)



The Owls will face their second straight hot hitting team when the Trojans come to Boca Raton. Arkansas-Little Rock blasted out a staggering 31 runs in a clean series sweep over the Hilltoppers (5-0, 10-6, 16-6) last weekend, including a season high mark of 16 in Sunday's tilt which saw eight players register at least two hits each. Heading into the series, the Trojans had dropped four straight.

Sun Belt Preseason Pitcher of the Year Chance Cleveland (2.59 ERA, 1st SBC) threw a complete-game shutout on Friday while striking out 10 and surrendering just three hits. Fittingly, that earned him pitcher of the week honors.

Conversely, FAU's lead-off man Austin Gomber, who has lost his last three starts while giving up 11 earned runs, currently finds himself in a slump. The talented lefty served up up two homers to Troy in game one, which represents 29% of his tally for the entire season.

"He just didn't throw a good pitch, and the guy did what he was supposed to do in that situation", Head Coach John McCormack said of the second home run. "I have faith in Austin, he's pitched his heart about, but we haven't supported him with runs. He's just run into a string of bad luck."

Regardless, Gomber's 74 K's places him 3rd amongst the best showings in the conference.

Offensively, the 8-3 Friday loss was the most concerning of the two plucked by Troy, as FAU's only scores came in the final frame off Tyler Rocklein's team best 7th homer on the year. For the week - with the Miami game included - Rocklein registered an impressive seven hits and saw four of them go for extra bases.

Hurler Jeremy Strawn (3.23 ERA, 8th SBC) was the other bright spot of note. The right hander produced a doozy of a showing on Saturday tossing eight scoreless innings, which dropped his ERA almost a half a run (.48) and moved him into the league's top 10 ERA listing.

As Brandon Rhodes continues to deal with a tender arm, Kyle Miller will take the hill for Sunday's match-up. This makes his second straight weekend start, although he only threw one inning in the last assignment.

FAU's collective ERA of 3.58 is still tops in the Sun Belt on the mound, but they no longer have a batsman gracing the individual top 15 listing presently. Mitch Morales took a .347 average into the series against the Trojans, but came out on the short end in production, and now sits at .329.

At 8-13 in league play, UALR is currently tied with Middle Tennessee State in the conference standings with nine contests remaining on their regular season schedule. Third baseman Ben Crumpton leads the Sun Belt in stolen bases with 22 bags on 25 attempts. He's also produced team best marks in both runs scored (47), and doubles (17).

The Trojans moved to .500 on the year with a 6-5 extra inning win over Stephen F. Austin on Tuesday night. RF Sam Vogel's double in the 10th made that possible. They have five players with better than .300 averages, including CF Bryson Thionnet who has sent nine balls over the wall and sports a .570 slugging percentage (9th SBC).

Sunday's game will start 2.5 hours earlier earlier than normal due to Little Rock's travel plans. The contest will also serve as Senior Day for Hugh Adams, Gregg Bennis, Corey Keller, Jake Meiers, Mark Nelson, Nathan Pittman, Mike Spano and Michael Sylvestri.

Speaking of Nelson, he should be back in the line-up for good at 1st base after enduring a span on the bench before flirting intermittently with a return that he himself discontinued. Concluding the Troy game on Friday, Nelson took himself out for the rest of the series. McCormack wants to see his absence come to an official end with no looking back.

"The plan is for him to play", said McCormack. "I want to to put him in the game on Friday and not talk about the hamstring again."

Hopefully the solidified return translates into some offense, as the senior infielder has gone 1-for-12 dating back to the Louisiana-Lafayette series.

With the conclusion of this weekend's slate, just one more contest awaits Florida Atlantic at home - a midweek game against Central Florida on May 14th.
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Re: SERIES THREAD: Arkansas-Little Rock @ FAU - May 03-05, 2013

weather not looking too great. would have better luck moving game times up.
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Re: SERIES THREAD: Arkansas-Little Rock @ FAU - May 03-05, 2013

USMCOWL said

weather not looking too great. would have better luck moving game times up.

Definitely not…

Speaking of which:

It's pouring right now - POURING.

Not good for graduations!
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Re: SERIES THREAD: Arkansas-Little Rock @ FAU - May 03-05, 2013

Things are looking "up" now…….

40% chance tonight, 20% chance tomorrow (at scheduled time), and Sunday 0% chance (so they say!)
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Re: SERIES THREAD: Arkansas-Little Rock @ FAU - May 03-05, 2013

A decision on tonight's contest will be made at 6:45 PM.

Rain and lightning in the area.
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Re: SERIES THREAD: Arkansas-Little Rock @ FAU - May 03-05, 2013

Still waiting on a decision.

Zzzzzzz……………………….
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Re: SERIES THREAD: Arkansas-Little Rock @ FAU - May 03-05, 2013

Game one has been postponed due to the huge mass of red and yellow that lies off to the west which is full of lightning:

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Teams will resume play at 12:00 PM on Saturday in a planned double header.
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Re: SERIES THREAD: Arkansas-Little Rock @ FAU - May 03-05, 2013

twinbill tomorrow?
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Re: SERIES THREAD: Arkansas-Little Rock @ FAU - May 03-05, 2013

USMCOWL said

twinbill tomorrow?

Yep, starting at high noon.
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Re: SERIES THREAD: Arkansas-Little Rock @ FAU - May 03-05, 2013

SERIES THREAD: Arkansas-Little Rock @ FAU - May 03-05, 2013

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