April 14, 2004

Final Stats

Despite spotting Bethune-Cookman College a 2-0 lead in the first inning, no. 25 Florida Atlantic University came back to defeat the Wildcats 11-5 Wednesday afternoon at FAU Stadium. FAU hit four home runs on the afternoon to account for 10 of the teams run. Evan Brannon hit a grand slam homer and Jeff Fiorentino hit two home runs on the afternoon to pick up four RBI.

FAU starting pitcher Jason Costello (3-0) got off to a rough start but gained composure after the first inning. The junior transfer gave up three hits to the first three B-CC batters before settling down. The left-hander did not allow another run in the next four innings and finished the afternoon with five innings of work with two runs on seven hits and three strikeouts.

Will Mann, Mark Culp, Brandon Kloess, David Hayes and Bobby DeMichael all saw action out of the bullpen for FAU (29-8) and saw the Wildcats collect six hits, while the group struck out four.

Jeff Fiorentino started the counter attack in the bottom of the first with a solo home run. B-CC starter, Carlos Avendano held the Florida Atlantic offense in check until the third inning before he gave up six more runs on three hits and three walks. The three hits came in the form of a Mike McBryde single, a Brannon grand slam and a Rob Horst two-run homer.

Brandon Worrall (2-3) came in to extinguish the fire and got the first three batters he faced out to close out the third. But the B-CC pitching staff again ran into trouble as Worrall walked the leadoff batter in the fourth before a Derek Hutton singled was followed by an Evan Brannon RBI single through the right side to put runners on first and second for Fiorentino. The junior followed with a three-run homer in his second round-tripper of the day.

FAU did not need any more offense as the team held on to its second win over Bethune-Cookman (22-17) this season.

The Wildcats offense was spread around as four players had a two hit game and five different players recorded an RBI on the afternoon.

Florida Atlantic returns to A-Sun play on Friday when first-year Atlantic Sun member Lipscomb visits FAU for a 7 pm game. A doubleheader will start at 1 pm on Saturday as FAU tries to move up in the conference rankings.