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Series Thread: Delaware vs FAU Feb 23-25, 2018

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Series Thread: Delaware vs FAU Feb 23-25, 2018


What:      Delaware (2-1) at Florida Atlantic (3-1)

When:     Fri, Feb 23rd at 6:30 PM
               Sat, Feb 24th at 4:00 PM
               Sun, Feb 25th at 12:00 PM


Where:    FAU Baseball Stadium

Stream:   CUSA.tv *FEE

Stats:      Here


Series:

This is the first meeting between the two teams.


Projected Starting Pitchers

Sat:       DEL - RHP Nick Spadafino (0-1, 16.88 ERA)
             FAU - LHP Jake Miednik (1-0, 0.00)

Sat:       DEL - RHP Kyle Hinton (0-0, 2.25 ERA)
             FAU - RHP Kyle Marman (1-0, 0.00)

Sun:      DEL - RHP Billy Sullivan IV (1-0, 0.00 ERA)
             FAU - RHP Vince Coletti  (0-0, 3.00 ERA)


Notes

Owls

FAU is off to a 3-1 start to the year after sweeping George Washington last weekend before losing 6-1 to #1 Florida in midweek action. The Owls have seen solid pitching for the most part but are behind expected pace in the hitting department.

Eric Rivera remains the only player above .300 with a .385 average, while Diamond Johnson (.214 AVG) leads the team in RBI with 5. However, as a unit Florida Atlantic is hitting just .206.

Preseason First Team Conference USA selection Tyler Frank finds himself at the bottom of the regulars with a .071 AVG going just 1-of-14 with three walks.

Coach John McCormack attributes the results so far to trying to hard, and expects that the team will find their rhythm in due time.

The Owls' roster is filled primarily with players from the Sunshine State, and only claims four additional states in total. Ironically, Delaware is one of them.

Freshman catcher Brock Nowell hails from Wilmington and attended Conrad Schools of Science, where he caught the attention of current FAU coach Greg Mamula, who spent five seasons with the Blue Hens (2002-06).


Blue Hens

Delaware overcame an opening day loss by taking two of three game series against Charleston Southern (3-6, 6-2, 1-0) on the road.

Freshman pitcher Billy Sullivan IV earned Colonial Athletic Association Baseball Rookie of the Week honors for his performance in the finale,  tossing five shutout innings in what was a true pitcher's duel.

Sullivan, who is noted for his fastball which was clocked as high as 95 last weekend, struck out nine batters in the win for Delaware. He's also got a newly developed breaking ball and could prove to be a challenge for the Owls.

Offensively, the Blue Hens are hitting .204 as a team. Right fielder Kyle Baker is the only player in the active line-up batting over .300, and checks in with a blistering .583 AVG after going 7-of-12 with a .833 slugging percentage against Charleston Southern.

The Blue Hens did not have a mid week game.
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Florida Atlantic posted thier highest run total on the young season Friday night, defeating Delaware 7-2 in game one of the series.

Jake Miednik tossed three frames of hitless ball, eventually finishing with a stellar line of 7.1IP, 2H, 2R, 1ER, 14K.

The Owls saw the offense pick up early with David Miranda tallying the team's first homer of the year to give them a 1-0 lead in the first inning. They would plate three more later in the third with three straight singles.

The Blue Hens (2-2) got on the board with an RBI single in the fifth and would cut the deficit in half in thier next turn.

Ahead 4-2, FAU put the leadoff runner on base in the bottom half of the 6th, and that sent Delaware starter Nick Spadafino (5IP, 6H, 5R, 6K) to the dugout.

His replacement Matt Hornich then surrendered the Owls' first triple of the season to Gunnar Lambert, who drove in Cody Wilson, and an error allowed Lambert to score as well for a 6-2 advantage before the stanza closed.

Cody Wilson swatted the second long ball of the night for FAU in the 8th for the final score.

Drew peden finished out on the mound for Florida Atlantic, throwing 21 pitches over 1.2 innings of which 71% were strikes.      

FAU will go for the series tomorrow at 4:00 PM.

UPDATED SCHEDULE: 2018 FAU Baseball Schedule - FAU Owl's Nest
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Leaving  for the game. Wondering how long Coach Mac will stick with the same batting order. Looks like a little adjusting is in order. I know John doesn't do knee jerk reactions, but it may be time for a little tweeking. (not twerking)
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Hopefully the bats get lively tonight.  Pitcher should be decent even though a freshman.  Dont buy too much into the pitching this series, this team struck out 14 times last Friday as well, also struck out 10 times in the middle game and 13 times in the final game against charleston southern.  
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For the second consecutive game, a 14-strikeout game was delivered by a Florida Atlantic University pitcher as Kyle Marman turned the trick Saturday, and Gunnar Lambert’s two-run home run was all the offense the Owls needed in a 2-1 victory over Delaware.

“He did a great job, and we needed every one of those strikeouts,” said Head Coach John McCormack of Marman. “Offensively, it’s still a little bit of an issue, (but) we got bailed out by a two-run homer. Played well defensively, and of course, pitched fantastic. Sandy (Blake Sanderson) comes in, gets the guy, Mark (Nowatnick) gets a clean eighth and we got somewhat of a clean ninth.”

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It's good to get the win, but our starting pitching will only go so far against mediocre opponents. We've been getting runners on base, but haven't been able to bring them home to save our lives. We need to get that worked on before the tougher stretches of the schedule.

When I'm not in school, I'm schooling the CUSA Twitter game; Follow Me Here
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Jack , you are such a nice guy. Lets be blunt, we won't have a successful season unless we start hitting. A couple of guys are hitting . Most are not. Rice, UNCC, USM, FIU, Mar, all these teams will beat us the way we are hitting.
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Local Owl said

Jack , you are such a nice guy. Lets be blunt, we won't have a successful season unless we start hitting. A couple of guys are hitting . Most are not. Rice, UNCC, USM, FIU, Mar, all these teams will beat us the way we are hitting.
Posted On: Feb 24th 2018, 7:51 PM #377389

I agree! The inability to get the job done with runners in position will kill us later in the year when we play better opponents. If we can't bring 'em home against the likes of Delaware, then how will we be able to do it when we play USM, ODU, and Rice? Thankfully there's still time to work on that.

When I'm not in school, I'm schooling the CUSA Twitter game; Follow Me Here
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Roscoeowl said

Hopefully the bats get lively tonight.  Pitcher should be decent even though a freshman.  Dont buy too much into the pitching this series, this team struck out 14 times last Friday as well, also struck out 10 times in the middle game and 13 times in the final game against charleston southern.  
Posted On: Feb 24th 2018, 4:37 PM #377381

Got today's Deleware starter mixed up with tomorrows starter.  Either way, ugh. Always nice to get a win but, Yeah ill say it. We can't hit.  I keep trying to convince myself it's just an early season slump but reality may be creeping in.  Coach Mac may need to go towards a more aggressive small ball type offensive approach this year.  A lot like the style CSFU uses.  
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Roscoeowl said

Got today's Deleware starter mixed up with tomorrows starter.  Either way, ugh. Always nice to get a win but, Yeah ill say it. We can't hit.
Posted On: Feb 24th 2018, 9:18 PM #377403

The guy tomorrow arguably should be their ace…if he continues on his path he will be in due time.

Agree with you…Can't believe we only posted two runs today…we should be in double digits against these teams.

C-USA pitching is going to be much tougher.

Not sure we have the legs to do a true small ball approach though…maybe Coach Mac is holding out. He's a VERY smart coach, so you have to think he has a plan looming if the hitting doesn't improve soon.

We have Miami next week…then Oregon for four games. The Ducks are a middle of the Pac12 squad, but still. Going to have to put some offense up.


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