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Florida Atlantic Opens Season Friday, Host No. 5 North Carolina
BOCA RATON, FL - Florida Atlantic University's baseball team opens the 2008 season this weekend, hosting a three-game series against No. 5 North Carolina. FAU's Kevin Cooney has guided the Owls to 17 winning seasons in 20 years as head coach. He fields a 2008 team that returns six everyday players who hit a collective .339 a year ago. The 2007 Owls averaged over eight runs per game and ranked second nationally in slugging percentage (.549). North Carolina was 57-16 in 2007, and has finished each of the past two seasons as national championship runners-up.
February 22-24, 2008 TV/RADIO/INTERNET: Live audio broadcasts for Friday night's opener and Sunday's series finale will be streamed online on Florida Atlantic's official athletics website (FAUsports.com). Steve Bishop (play-by-play) will call the action. Owl Radio, Florida Atlantic's campus radio station, will be broadcasting both Saturday and Sunday's games. Additionally, live scoring for all FAU home games will be provided via GAMETRACKER on FAUsports.com. 17 WINNING SEASONS IN 20 YEARS: Head Coach Kevin Cooney - now in his 21st season at FAU, and 25th overall - owns an 854-503-9 all-time record as a head coach. That ranks him 24th among active Division I coaches for career victories entering the 2008 season. Cooney has been remarkable in transitioning the FAU program into one of the top Division I-A teams in the country. Since taking over at FAU in 1988 and later leading the Owls into Division I-A play in 1995, FAU has enjoyed 17 winning campaigns in 20 seasons. Under Cooney's direction, FAU has posted nine consecutive winning seasons, averaging an exceptional 41 wins per year since 1999. In just 13 years as a Division I-A program, Cooney has guided FAU to eight NCAA Regional appearances, and an NCAA Super Regional appearance in 2002. FAU RECOGNIZED AMONG THE NATION'S TOP COLLEGE PROGRAMS: Florida Atlantic University was included in Collegiate Baseball's "Fabulous 40 Pre-Season NCAA Division I Poll," receiving votes as one of the nation's top programs. Over the past nine seasons, the Owls have averaged 41 wins per year, including five NCAA Regional trips and an NCAA Super Regional appearance in 2002. A QUICK LOOK AT NORTH CAROLINA: The Tar Heels won a school-record 57 games in 2007, capturing the school's first ACC title since 1990 in the process. UNC's 57 wins was the best win-total nationwide. For the second consecutive year the Tar Heels finished as the national runners-up to Oregon State at the College World Series in Omaha. They enter the 2008 season ranked fifth in the nation by both Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball Newspaper. After making 18 starts as a freshman a year ago sophomore RHP Alex White returns and will most likely be an early-season fixture in the front end of the UNC rotation. Junior right-hander Adam Warren, who also figures to be in the rotation for UNC this weekend, went 12-0 with a 2.17 ERA as a sophomore mid-week starter last season. Sophomore 1B/OF Dustin Ackley, the consensus national freshman of the year in 2007, highlights the Tar Heel lineup offensively. ALL-TIME SERIES: This weekend's series will be the first-ever meeting between FAU and UNC. FIRST PITCH AND ALUMNI WEEKEND: FAU baseball will be inducting five new members into its Hall of Fame on Thursday night. The ceremony will kick off First Pitch and Alumni Weekend. This year's honorees include Pat Murphy ('81-82), Jorge Vega ('81-83), Doug Gonring ('84-85), Kevin Connacher ('94-97), and Tommy Murphy ('98-00). Along with the induction ceremonies, awards from the 2007 season will be presented.
Thursday Feb. 21- Sunday Feb. 24, 2008
Cost to attend Thursday night's Hall of Fame Induction dinner is $20/person. THE ROAD TO OMAHA: The Owls will be tested early, opening its 2008 campaign this weekend against preseason No. 5 North Carolina- the first of seven NCAA Regional teams from '07 that FAU faces this spring. 21 of FAU's first 24 games will be played in the state of Florida, including a three-game home series with preseason Sun Belt Conference favorite University of Louisiana-Lafayette in mid-March. A pair of weekday road games at No. 14 University of Miami will be part of an eight-game road swing that concludes in early April.
Notable Games on FAU's '08 schedule: TOP RETURNERS: Upperclassmen William Block (.344 BA, 18 HR), Mike McKenna (.413 BA, 16 HR) and third baseman Daniel Cook (.349 BA, 15 SB) highlight a group of returning players which helped the Owls lead the Sun Belt in virtually every offensive category in 2007. Junior right-hander Mickey Storey (244 K's in 244.1 career innings), Collegiate Baseball's 2005 Freshman Pitcher of the Year, returns from a red-shirt season to bolster a rotation that was led by Michael Obradovich (9-5, 88 K's) last year. Obradovich transferred from Alabama's Gadsten State Community College and won nine games in his Division I debut a year ago. He is expected to begin the 2008 season as the staff's closer. NEW TO THE TEAM IN 2008: Cooney and John McCormack, associate head coach and recruiting coordinator, have brought in a talented group of new players. Colby Gratton (Miami, FL/Southridge High School) impressed in the fall, earning MVP honors in FAU's Fall World Series. Gratton and Tom Hatcher (Marietta, GA/Chipola Community College), the Panhandle Conference Player of the Year at Chipola Community College in 2007, should add depth to an FAU offense that pushed across eight runs a game last season. The outfield should also benefit from the speed and strong defensive presence of junior transfer David Wilson (Edmund, OK/Barton County (KS) CC). Additions for 2008 also include local pitchers Glen Troyanowski (Margate, FL/St. Thomas Aquinas High School), Mike Gipson (West Palm Beach, FL/Palm Beach Central High School) and hard-throwing left-handed transfer Jeff Beliveau (Johnson, RI/College of Charleston). OBRADOVICH, MCKENNA NAMED TO PRESEASON ALL-SUN BELT TEAM: Florida Atlantic University's preseason All-America outfielder Mike McKenna and senior pitcher Michael Obradovich were named to the All-Sun Belt Conference preseason baseball team. McKenna, the Sun Belt's top returning hitter, has earned 2008 preseason All-America honors by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association and Louisville Slugger. Obradovich is expected to take on the role of FAU's closer this spring after winning nine games and saving three as both a starter and reliever in 2007. MORE 2008 PRESEASON ACCOLADES: Both William Block and Mike McKenna were named to the Louisville Slugger Preseason All-American Third Team. It was the second preseason honor for Block who also was named to the Brooks Wallace Watch List- an award given to the nation's top collegiate player. McKenna also was named to the Wallace Watch List, and garnered preseason All-America honors by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association. Block, a junior infielder from Pembroke Pines, hit .344 last season, with a team-high 18 homeruns and a .652 slugging percentage. McKenna is the top-returning hitter in the Sun Belt, posting a .413 batting average in 2007. COOK, STOREY PASS ON MLB TO REURN TO FAU IN 2008: Both infielder Daniel Cook (Miami, FL) and pitcher Mickey Storey (Deerfield Beach, FL) passed up an opportunity to turn pro this summer to return to FAU for the 2008 season. Storey was the first of three FAU pitchers to be selected in the 2007 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft, chosen by the Minnesota Twins in the 22nd round. Cook was taken by the Washington Nationals in the 20th round. The outfielder was a Second-Team All-Conference selection after hitting .349 with six home runs, 39 RBI and 15 stolen bases. FAU PICKED FOURTH IN 2008 SUN BELT COACHES POLL: Florida Atlantic was picked to finish fourth in the Sun Belt's preseason coaches poll, a league that sent three teams to the NCAA Regionals in 2007. The Owls went 36-22 overall and 15-15 in regular season conference play in 2007, good for a sixth-place finish in the league standings.
2008 Preseason Coaches Poll (First place votes in parenthesis) FAU AND THE SUN BELT CONFERENCE: 2007 marked the first year for Florida Atlantic baseball as a member of the Sun Belt Conference. 11 of the Sun Belt's 13 schools field a baseball team. The conference has received multiple bids into NCAA Regional play for 19 consecutive seasons- a streak that is matched by only four other conferences nationwide (ACC, Pac-10, SEC, Big West). Prior to FAU athletics becoming a full-fledged member of the Sun Belt Conference beginning with the 2006-2007 school year, the FAU baseball team competed in the Atlantic Sun Conference for 11 seasons (1995-2006), with the 1994-1995 school year the first for Florida Atlantic University's athletic department at the Division I-A level.
NCAA Regional Bids Since 2002 (Current & Past Sun Belt members)
$ Sun Belt Champion NINE STRAIGHT WINNING SEASONS: Florida Atlantic University has posted a winning record in nine consecutive seasons under the guidance of head coach Kevin Cooney. FAU won 47 games in both 2003 and 2004. The program's best-ever finish came in 1999, when FAU went 54-9. NATION'S BEST OFFENSE: The Owls finished the 2007 season ranked fourth nationally in batting average (.341), second in slugging percentage (.549), eighth in scoring (8.1 runs per game), third in homeruns (1.6 per game), and 18th in doubles (2.24 per game).
FAU MUST REPLACE 2007 SUN BELT PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Florida Atlantic will be forced to replace Robbie Widlansky, the 2007 Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year. Widlansky was selected by the Baltimore Orioles in the 11th round of the 2007 MLB First-Year Player Draft last June and will begin his professional playing career this summer. The junior was named a First-Team All-American by Louisville Slugger and Second-Team All-American by Rivals.com. He broke several FAU records this season in hits, total bases and batting average. The Coral Springs native finished with 104 hits, a .433 batting average, 15 home runs and 69 RBI last season.
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