In his first appearance of 2017, sophomore Marc Stewart allowed one run in five innings. But for the third straight game, Florida Atlantic baseball’s bullpen gave up a lead as FAU (4-3-1) fell to the University of Miami 5-2 on Wednesday night.

Stewart stuck out the first batter of the game, then hit Miami (3-4) junior right fielder Carl Chester with a pitch. Stewart got out of the inning unscathed and was one out away from a third straight shutout inning, until Chester stepped up to the plate for the second time and sent the ball over the left field fence to give his team a 1-0 lead.

Chester and Stewart squared off once more in the fifth inning with a runner in scoring position, but the Miami right fielder lined out to third base. The baserunner, freshman right fielder Nico Baldor, reached base on a walk then advanced to second via a sacrifice bunt.

In the bottom half of the inning, head coach John McCormack found his team in a similar situation after senior catcher Kevin Abraham led off with a single to right field. He allowed his hitter, sophomore Tyler Frank, to swing away and got rewarded with a second-straight single to put runners on first and second with no outs, and force Veliz out of the game in favor of freshman Albert Maury Jr.

Maury induced a ground ball, but the Hurricanes weren’t able to record an out as the bases became loaded for senior first baseman Esteban Puerta. Puerta reached base, but at the cost of an Abraham force out at home.

Maury then walked his next batter, senior second baseman Stephen Kerr, for the Owls first run of the game. FAU took the lead one batter later when senior designated hitter Sean Labsan reached base via a fielder’s choice.

Sophomore pitcher Kyle Marman shut the Hurricanes down in the sixth, but allowed the first three batters of the seventh inning to all reach base. All three eventually scored in the inning, and a fourth was charged to sophomore Eric Keating, who allowed a hit to both batters he faced.

The Owls had a number of chances to add to their run total throughout the game. In the third inning FAU had the bases loaded with two outs, but Labsan struck out on a full count.

With two outs in the fifth, after the Owls scored their two runs, Miami was able to get junior right fielder David Miranda to ground out with the bases loaded. One inning later, FAU was unable to score after having two runners on base with one out.
In all, FAU left 11 runners on base.

The win snaps a four-game losing streak for the Hurricanes.

The Owls host the University of Illinois for a three-game series beginning on Friday, March 3, at 6:30 p.m.

Brendan Feeney is the managing editor of the University Press. For information regarding this or other stories, email [email protected] or tweet him @feeney42.