Florida Atlantic 14 Canisius 6
BOCA RATON, FL – Florida Atlantic University’s baseball team, ranked No. 23 nationally by Baseball America, used the strong arm Austin Gomber, who moved to 8-4 on the season, and the hot bats of seniors Nathan Pittman and Corey Keller to defeat Canisius 14-6 in Saturday’s elimination game of the Chapel Hill NCAA Tournament. The victory improved FAU’s record to 40-21 on the season, the fourth time in 10 seasons and the first under the direction of Head Coach John McCormack that the Owls have posted at least 40 wins.
FAU, the visiting team, saw Pittman draw a lead-off walk to open the game. Mark Nelson hit a single to right which moved the speedy Pittman to third allowing him to score on the next play, a RBI fielder’s choice by Tyler Rocklein.
Gomber pitched the first of his five scoreless innings in the bottom half of the first and saw the Owls score three in the top of the second to build a needed cushion. With two outs Ricky Santiago hit a single to left. Shortstop Mitch Morales followed with a bunt single down the third base line that was missed played allowing Santiago to advance to third. With runners on first and third and two outs Pittman belted his fifth homer of the year to put FAU up 4-0.
UNC 8 Towson 5
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) — Kent Emanuel pitched into the eighth inning, and Michael Russell drove in three runs as No. 1 national seed North Carolina beat Towson 8-5 on Saturday night in the Chapel Hill regional.
The Tar Heels (54-8) led 5-0 in the sixth before the third-seeded Tigers (30-29) rallied with three runs in the eighth off Emanuel. Two of those came on a bases-loaded single by Kurt Wentz, helping the Tigers pull within 7-5 before UNC reliever Trent Thornton forced Brendan Butler to fly out to end the inning.
