FAU builds early lead, hangs on for win to sweep Miami

CORAL GABLES — The last time Miami and Florida Atlantic met, the Hurricanes found themselves on the wrong end of a thrilling comeback effort against their South Florida rival.

After falling behind early to FAU on Wednesday at Mark Light Field, it was Miami hoping it could find a way to rally late.

They fought back some, but couldn’t get the win.

The Hurricanes, who have struggled throughout much of the first half of the season, gave up three runs in the first inning and couldn’t overcome that early deficit, falling 7-4 to FAU despite outhitting the Owls 13-12.

The loss was Miami’s fifth in seven days, the Hurricanes (12-16) falling to Florida Gulf Coast last Wednesday and losing all three in a weekend series at Georgia Tech on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

It also marked Miami’s third loss to FAU (21-8) this season. Meanwhile, for the Owls, Wednesday’s win gave FAU its first season sweep of the Hurricanes in the all-time series which began in 1982.

Prior to this year, FAU hadn’t won a season series against Miami since taking two of three against the Hurricanes in 1984.

“We’ve got to play better as a team. We fought back at the end, which was good. There are good signs. We had 13 hits, actually one more than them. But we made too many mental mistakes,” Hurricanes coach Jim Morris said. “Some of the young guys are still making mental mistakes and that costs you a run here and there and which ends up costing you games. We have to play better. We have to play smarter and cut back on our mental mistakes. We have to keep battling. I think our guys are battling hard. We’re just making too many mistakes.”

With Miami’s mistakes and all, from the start, the Owls played inspired baseball.

FAU shortstop Tyler Frank led off the game with a double to left field and scored minutes later when No. 2 hitter Joe Montes singled to right. That sequence was followed by another hit, this one from David Miranda, and a walk to Pedro Pages, all of which helped Florida Atlantic jump to the early lead.

The Hurricanes cut into that lead two innings later on the strength of a single from Romy Gonzalez, a triple by Freddy Zamora and another single from Willy Escala.

But while Miami managed two runs in the inning, the Hurricanes could never overtake FAU, which increased its lead in both the fourth and the fifth innings after home runs by Kevin Abraham and Andru Summerall, respectively.

In all, the Owls managed 12 hits in Wednesday’s victory and also capitalized on three Miami errors.

For FAU, Miranda finished with three hits, while Rivera and Summerall each had two RBI. Starter Mark Nowatnick, who was on a pre-determined three inning limit, gave up five hits, but earned his second win of the season.