March 17, 2008

Box Score

BOCA RATON, FL - Mike McKenna drove in five runs and hit his league-leading seventh and eighth home runs of the season for the Owls, leading Florida Atlantic past Cornell 11-6.

Florida Atlantic (11-6) improved to 4-1 on its current 10-game home stand. The team donned green-trimmed uniforms and caps and the bases were painted green for the Saint Patrick's Day night game under the lights at FAU Stadium.

Three different Owls hit fifth-inning home runs, including a two-run shot by McKenna who also assumed the Sun Belt Conference lead in RBI (29). McKenna went 2-for-4 and drove in five runs, his fourth three-plus RBI game of the season.

Cornell (4-5) had defeated both Penn State and Pittsburgh on neutral field games in West Palm Beach prior to Monday's game with FAU, which was added to each team's schedule last week.

True freshman starter Richard Anaya walked the bases loaded in his first collegiate inning, but worked his way out of the early jam and would pitch three scoreless frames before Cornell broke through with two runs in the top of the fourth.

Still trailing 2-0 in the bottom of the fifth, the FAU bats got Anaya off the hook. Homeruns by Justin Ferreira, Jeremy Griffiths and the afore mentioned two-run homer by McKenna all cleared the right field fence off Big Red starter David Rochefort (0-2).

Nathan Ford and Mickey Brodski hit back-to-back doubles off FAU reliever Dan Marcacci in the top of the seventh to cut FAU's four-run lead down to one, 5-4. Chris Schmitt came on to spell Marcacci and efficiently recorded a pair of outs to strand Brokski at second, who was representing the tying run.

Schmitt pitched the rest of the way to pick up a save, his first of the year. Kyle Forney (1-0) hurled two spotless innings in relief of Anaya to go down as the pitcher of record for FAU.

McKenna's second two-run homer of the night came in the seventh inning, plating teammate William Block who had singled earlier in the inning to extend his hitting-streak to 14 straight games.

The Owls took a four-run lead on McKenna's seventh-inning homer and tacked on four more in the eighth, largely due to a series of Cornell miscues.

FAU plays its seventh game in eight days Tuesday night against Rutgers. First pitch is slated for 6:30 p.m. at FAU Stadium on Florida Atlantic's campus in Boca Raton.