Big inning propels Owls past Hurricanes
Four runs early send FAU to the victory
BOCA RATON — For the Hurricanes, a bad inning early proved too much to overcome. For the Owls, a big inning and an insurance run were just enough.
Miami and FAU kicked off their season-long, threegame series in front of a rowdy crowd at FAU Stadium on Wednesday night, with the Owls notching a 5-4 win over the young Hurricanes, who have at times struggled during the early portion of the season and now, are facing a growing number of injuries.
With the win, the Owls have won four straight and six of their first seven. The Hurricanes, meanwhile, have now lost five of their last six and were unable to build on some of the momentum from a 2-0 win over defending national champion Florida on Sunday.
Instead, midweek starter Michael Mediavilla — who struggled last week in a loss to Missouri — had issues yet again and the Owls took advantage.
All four of the first hitters Mediavilla faced in the bottom of the first — Tyler Frank, Joe Montes, David Miranda and Pedro Pages — managed hits. Things got progressively worse as the inning continued, with the Hurricanes committing an error and the Owls eventually building a 4-0 lead on the strength of five hits.
After FAU’s big first inning, the Hurricanes (3-5) began chipping into that lead an inning later and would eventually put the tying run on third with none out in the eighth, but FAU pitcher Drew Peden worked out of the jam, keeping the Hurricanes at bay and putting the Owls in position to secure just their 15th win in the all-time series and their first since April 20, 2016.
“We kind of shut ourselves in the foot in the first inning and in three of our losses, that’s where we’ve given up a lot of runs in one inning,” Hurricanes coach Jim Morris said. “We’ve got to minimize the damage when we get some guys on base. Give up one run, not four runs or six runs or seven runs, which has happened three times. That was a big part of the game right there. We battled back and I thought we did a good job in the eighth. We had first and third with no outs and 1-2-3 coming up, you have to hope you’ll score some runs right there.”
For Miami, the first run came in the second when Freddy Zamora drew a bases-loaded walk that scored former Boca Raton High standout Michael Amditis, who had reached earlier on a single to left.
For Amditis, who was later hit by a pitch and drew a walk, the game was a sort of bittersweet homecoming. Though he had a productive night at the plate and scored for the Hurricanes, Wednesday marked his first game back at FAU Stadium since he suffered a gruesome season-ending leg injury on this same field a year ago.
Amditis and Miami further cut into FAU’s lead in the third on the strength of a two-run Michael Perez homer that was hit so hard that Miranda — the Owls’ right fielder — barely moved, seemingly knowing it was headed over the wall behind him.
A fourth run came in the seventh when Amditis’ sacrifice fly scored Romy Gonzalez, but later in the game, Amditis injured his hand and though he remained in the game, Hurricanes coach Jim Morris said he was “very concerned” about the redshirt freshman’s status going forward.
For FAU, Frank had a pair of hits and two runs scored. Montes, Miranda, and Cody Wilson each had an RBI.