FAU Drops Final Non-Conference Game In Football Score Fashion

By: Tobey Schulman

FINAL SCORE: FAU – 18, FGCU – 28

After dropping their final road conference series of the season, FAU looked to bounce back and take the second matchup against Florida Gulf Coast. The Eagles seemed to not take too kindly to FAU’s early 7-0 lead, and responded by scoring 28 total runs, beating the Owls on the run rule in the seventh inning. The Owls now hold a 25-25 record heading into their final conference series against UTSA this weekend, set to start Thursday in Boca Raton. 

FAU looked like they may have put this game out of reach early, after putting up a seven spot in the opening frame. After a pair of doubles from John Schroeder and Christian Adams, a single from Emilio Gonzalez, and a grand slam from Jake Millan, the Owls looked to be sitting pretty in the early goings of the game. This would be very short lived, as after a three run bottom half for the Eagles, they turned around the next inning and scored 14 in the bottom half of the second. The score went from 7-0, to 17-7 in the matter of one inning. 

It was clear that this game went from being a blowout, to simply a game of catch-up for FAU. They wouldn’t back down on the offensive end, but the pitching just couldn’t recover. After the 14 run second frame, the hole was dug too deep. The Owls pitching staff would give up 11 more runs throughout the rest of the game, and would only see a scoreless frame in the fifth inning.

FAU could’ve just rolled over with the bats and accepted the run-rule defeat earlier, but they would go on to put up 18 runs in an effort to cut the deficit and try and salvage their final midweek matchup. Brando Leroux was a big part of the offense going 3-3 with two doubles. Jalen DeBose also did his fair share on the offensive end tallying a couple of hits and getting on base over a handful of times and tallying four RBIs. Despite the efforts from the offense, as previously mentioned the hole was just too deep to dig out of for the FAU pitching staff.

With an 11-13 conference record FAU needs to sweep this series against UTSA to put them in the best possible position standings wise for the conference tournament. It’ll be an uphill battle the rest of this season, but this team has shown its grit game in and game out. This upcoming final regular season series will be a true test of character for this entire program.