March 3, 2004

Final Stats

No. 11 Florida Atlantic University defeated south Florida rival Florida International 7-5 Friday night at University Park in the first game of a four-game series. Freshman Robbie Widlansky finished the night with a two-for-three performance and two RBI for FAU (13-1).

Derek DeCarlo struggled in the first inning as he walked three batters and gave up a double to third baseman Robbie Widlansky. Tim Mascia plated the second run on a sacrifice fly to center field as Dennis Diaz made a diving catch. Sophomore Alex Fonseca recorded his 11th RBI of the season after reaching on a fielder's choice.

The FAU offense would be shutdown in the second as DeCarlo struck out the side and blanked the visitors through the fifth inning.

The Golden Panthers (6-10) managed to tie the score in the bottom of the fifth after three one-run innings. FAU starter Will Mann allowed three runs in five innings of work and struck out two as he improves to 2-0 in his second start.

Senior Rob Horst (Gering, NE) gave FAU back the lead in the top of the sixth with a towering home run over the left field scoreboard with two outs. The outfielder now holds the team lead in homers with five.

Florida Atlantic padded the lead in the seventh again with two outs as Derek Hutton singled followed by a Robbie Widlansky two-run single for a 7-3 lead.

A leadoff walk by Mario Suarez in the seventh hurt FAU pitcher Craig Hughes as he then allowed a single to Michael Lopez to move Suarez into scoring position. Yahmed Yema then recorded his third sacrifice fly of the season, second of the night for FIU's fourth run.

The final run of the night came off of the bat of P.J. Lehmann as he connected on his second home run of the season. Hughes left in the inning after giving up his third earned run of the season in 16 2/3 innings.

Chris Saxton came out of the pen to record his fourth save and strikeout one.