May 15, 2007

The top two offensive teams in the Sun Belt Conference will meet this weekend when Florida Atlantic University hosts Florida International University in a three-game Sun Belt Conference series. It will be the final series of the regular season and will decide which teams make it into the conference tournament.

The Owls will honor eight players on Saturday in the final game of the season. Tyler Stevens, Justin Martin, Robbie Widlansky, Joel Schmal, Brandon Cooney, Andrew Tomlin, Anthony Bradley and Chris Salberg will be honored before Saturday's 2 p.m. game.

FAU enters the week leading the SBC with a .342 team batting average. FIU follows in second with a .320 offensive clip. Individually, the top three players in the conference are from one of the Florida schools. Robbie Widlansky leads the league with a .433 batting average followed by FIU's James McOwen at .420 and FAU's Mike McKenna at .413.

The Owls are coming off a non-conference weekend against Bethune-Cookman. In that series, McKenna extended his hitting streak to 19 games while Robbie Widlansky now stands at 15. Third baseman William Block leads the team with 15 homers and also supports 52 RBI.

Joel Schmal is expected to make his fifth start of the season on Thursday. The senior holds a 4-1 record with a 3.32 ERA.

The Golden Panthers will send Chris Allen, Corey Polizzano and Walker Whitley to the mound to face the Owl offense. Allen leads the team with 15 starts and 87 strikeouts and sports a 4-5 record with a 5.29 ERA. Lefty Polizzano is 4-7 with a 6.13 ERA, while Whitley holds a 3-3 record with a 6.04 ERA.

The series stands at 35-29 in favor of Florida International. It is the most played series in FAU history, but this meeting holds post season implications. Eight teams are invited to the conference tournament held in Mobile, AL and FAU currently is in eighth. There is a possibility that the team could finish anywhere between fourth and 10th after this weekend's action.

Thursday's game is scheduled for 6 p.m. with Friday set for 4 p.m. and the final game of the regular season on Saturday at 2 p.m. All games can be followed at www.fausports.com by clicking on the gameetracker link, while Friday and Saturday's contest can be heard by clicking on the listen link on the baseball schedule page.

Sun Belt Standings
Louisiana-Lafayette 21-6
Troy 15-12
New Orleans 15-12
Middle Tennessee 15-12
Louisiana-Monroe 15-14
Western Kentucky 13-14
Florida International 12-14
Florida Atlantic 12-15
South Alabama 11-15
Arkansas State 11-16
UALR 8-18