By: Tobey Schulman
FAU Crushes FIU with 11 Runs in the 3rd
After dropping game two at FIU, the Owls came in determined to take the series finale. FAU’s offense looked to come alive as FIU shut-out the Owls lineup after the first inning of game two. The Owls bats would hit for a season high 24 runs against the Panthers in the rubber match, and take the series two games to one.
FAU would do the opposite of what they did offensively in game two. The Owls as previously mentioned didn’t score a run after the first inning. In game three, FAU scored in every inning but one with a scoreless eighth inning.
The Owls 24 run performance was highlighted by the bottom of the third inning, where they scored 11 runs. Eight of those runs came solely from two at bats. The Owls offense hit two grand slams in the third. One from Jalen Debose and the other from John Schroeder, his second of the series.
While the Owls have been able to win games simply by putting the ball in play, today it was highlighted by the long ball. Christian Adams would hit his sixth home run of the year in the first inning of game three. Carter Brady would tally two more home runs to his season total in this game as well, and Jake Millan would add another late in the game.
Tyler Murphy would put together a great start for the Owls to hold FIU to one run in his five innings of work. Murphy would record a career high eight strikeouts as well in his start, only allowing one hit. The Owls pitching staff would only give up one more run in the seventh, not that it mattered remotely given the score of the game at that point.
Following a very disappointing offensive night on the road, the Owls bounced back to score 20+ runs for the second time this season. This is also the second series tiebreaker where the Owls have scored over 20 runs this season. This FAU team is showing early this season that when they need to, they can put up runs and get the bats going.
The Owls look to yet another tough in-state opponent. It’ll be a red out in the stands against the University of Miami on Tuesday. Another big game against another power five program, and a win in their first meeting this season would be huge for the morale of the group going forward.