Owls Take on Golden Eagles in C-USA Opener



What: FAU (13-5, 0-0) vs. Southern Miss (10-7, 0-0)

When: Fri, Mar 18th @ 7:00 PM
           Sat, Mar 19th @ 3:00 PM
           Sun, Mar 20th @ 11:30 PM           

Where: Pete Taylor Park

Video: ESPN+

Live Stats:Here

Golden Eagles Team Site: Here

Series: The Owls trail in the all-time series 14-11, and split last season's four game set


Projected Starting Pitchers:

SMU - RHP Tanner Hall (2-0, 0.84 ERA)
FAU - LHP Hunter Cooley (3-0, 3.65 ERA)

SMU - RHP Hunter Riggins (3-1, 0.69 ERA)  
FAU - RHP Tibur Rivero (3-0, 4.74 ERA)  

SMU - RHP Hurston Waldrep (1-1, 3.86 ERA)
FAU - LHP Tyler Burnham (1-0, 3.38 ERA)


Owl Notables

Florida Atlantic had one of those moments Tuesday afternoon, falling 12-3 at home to North Dakota Sate in an impromptu scenario where the time was shifted up five hours, it was overcast and cloudy, and neither the pitching, hitting, or anything else seemed to work in their favor.

"We were bad in everything", said head Coach John McCormack. "It's the same thing again, we give up these big innings and we can't get out of them. It starts on the mound."

Using the set back as motivation, FAU will open the 2022 C-USA slate while holding down the league's best overall offense coming out of non-conference play, and sporting three hitters in the top 15 (Jackson Ross, Gabriel Rincones, and Nolan Schanuel). Rincones enjoys a one-stroke lead over a trio of others in homers (7), and also has the most hits (30) and RBI (28) under his belt as well.

As a team, Florida Atlantic has more runs, hits, RBI, and total bases than any other C-USA squad. A contributing factor to these numbers is obviously team batting, where they take the lead role. However, the Owls are also producing solid numbers in some other interesting categories of note. In contrast to last year, also at play in their success are a whopping 37 hit by pitch (HBP), 18 stolen bases (SB), and the fact that they have only grounded into six double plays (GDP). For the entirety of 2021 FAU collected just 65 HBP, had 25 SB, and hit into 36 GPD.

These trends will help as the rope tightens around pitching performance requirements for wins, which is one area the team could improve with a 10th place 5.81 ERA overall showing, the most homeruns allowed (22), and second most earned runs allowed (104).

Coach McCormack appears to be settling in on his preferred line-up on the bump, with Hunter Cooley leading off, Tibur Rivero picking up the middle game, and Tyler Burnham (photo below) returning for the second straight weekend on Sunday.



Just what needed to happen has happened for Burnham, who had his best outing in an Owl uniform last Sunday, fanning six batters in four innings of work while giving up only one hit and a walk.

The back half of the pen is setting up to be one of the better units in the league and currently has two relievers averaging over a strikeout per inning in that of Max Martzolf (1.85), and Robert Wegielnik (1.7).

The key to a successful weekend for the Owls is simple: use their offense to get to the Golden Eagles' starters early and force them to go deep into the bullpen as the series progresses.

"All of theses guys have been on enough road trips, they know what we've got to do", McCormack said.


Golden Eagle Notables

Alabama edged out Southern Miss in hits 9-8 on Wednesday, but fell to the host Golden Eagles 3-2 in a big mid-week match-up at Pete Taylor Park before over 5,000 fans. Will McGillis collected a two-run, go-ahead double in the fourth and seven Southern Miss pitchers limited Alabama to a pair of runs.

On paper, USM's starting trio of RHP Tanner Hall (2-0, 0.84 ERA), RHP Hunter Riggins (3-1, 0.69 ERA), and RHP Hurston Waldrep (1-1, 3.86 ERA) will offer the best the Owls have faced on the season by far.

Hall was named C-USA Pitcher of the Week after a dominant performance against No. 18 Tulane last Wednesday night while limiting the Green Wave to just four hits – two of those coming in the eighth inning.

For the outing, Hall threw 92 pitches, including 77 for strikes, for an 84 percent strike-to-ball ratio. He has not allowed an earned run over his last 16 innings in a starting role.

Offensively, the Golden Eagles are currently led by Reece Ewing who is hitting .328 with a team-best four home runs and 11 RBI. Slade Wilks ranks next at .316 and 10 RBI, while Dustin Dickerson holds a .302 batting average.

Source Cited: Southern Miss Media Relations

Good news, Owls get to Tanner Hall early with two runs in the first and another in the third for a 3-0 lead.

Rincones RBI 1B, Loden RBI 1B, Schanuel HR.

Bad news, in the most improbable type of hits in a single at bat, Southern Miss slices three balls down the left field line and Dylan Goldstein can't pull down any of them successfully, as the Golden Eagles plate five runs in the bottom half of the frame.

End 3rd:

FAU 3  USM 5

Tie Game!

Tyler Kelder connects for the 48th double of the year for the Owls, and it's a good one with 2 RBI attached.

Tanner Hall is D-O-N-E with a career high 5ER allowed.

End 6th:

FAU 5  USM 5

Drumheller now on the mound for the Owls in the Top 7th.

Final Line on Cooley:

6IP, 8H, 4ER, 4K, 0BB, 92PC.

Golden Eagles touch up Drumheller for two runs, one of which is earned, and retake the lead.

His finale line: 1IP, 3H, 2R, 1ER.

End 7th:

FAU 5  USM 7

Jackson Ross leads off with a single, but a double play ends the threat for FAU.

Dante Visconti takes over of the hill and delivers a 1-2-3 effort for the Owls in the bottom of the 8th.

Florida Atlantic down to their final three outs after eight complete.

FAU 5  USM 7

RBI 2B by Magrann has the Owls within 1 with two away!

Rincones at the plate.

Let's GO!

TIE GAME!

Rincones swats another double for the Owls!

Golden Eagles intentionally walk Schanuel.

Two on, two out…

Bot 9th:

FAU 7  USM 7

Boys are fightin'

🦉