BOCA RATON, FL - Florida Atlantic’s Alex Fonseca hit a three-run home run in the eighth inning to lead FAU to a 6-4 come-from-behind victory over the Rutgers baseball team Tuesday night in Boca Raton, FL. The loss overshadowed junior pitcher Sean Spicer’s (Pearl River, NY) dominant performance on the mound for the Scarlet Knights. RU falls to 3-9 with its ninth-straight loss, while FAU moves to 9-11.
Spicer retired the first seven batters of the game and allowed just four runs on five hits with three strikeouts in 7.1 innings of work. After giving up his fifth hit with one out in the eighth, Spicer was relieved by sophomore Tim Woodhull (Princeton Junction, NJ) with the Scarlet Knights clinging to a 4-3 lead. Two batters later, Fonseca hit his three-run game-winning blast to left field.
Mike Crotta, FAU’s seventh pitcher of the game, came in and closed out the ninth for Florida Atlantic with three strikeouts for the save.
Rutgers pushed its first run of the game across in the third inning. Senior leadoff hitter Jeff Grose (Iselin, NJ) doubled down the left field line and moved to third on a deep fly out to center field off the bat of Tom Edwards (West Caldwell, NJ). Sophomore Todd Frazier (Toms River, NJ) smacked an RBI single to right field, scoring Grose from third.
Spicer surrendered his first hit of the game in the third inning as FAU tied the game at 1-1 with William Block’s solo home run to left field.
Spicer wasn’t fazed, retiring six of the next eight batters before giving up his second hit of the game. Jordan Hafer of FAU broke a 1-1 tie with a two-out solo home run to right field in the bottom of the fifth inning. The Owls got two more hits in the inning, producing another run to make it 3-1.
Rutgers fought back with two runs in the seventh inning to tie it at 3-3. RU got its first two batters on base to open the inning on Mike Bionde’s (Pompton Plains, NJ) single and Grose’s walk. Edwards sacrificed them both over before Frazier walked to load the bases. Sophomore Ryan Hill (Hillsdale, NJ) and freshman Luis Feliz (New Brunswick, NJ) each drew bases-loaded walks from new FAU pitcher Mike Salivar to bring home Bionde and Grose.
Rutgers then regained the lead on sophomore Frank Meade’s (Linden, NJ) mammoth home run to leadoff the eighth inning to give the Scarlet Knights a 4-3 advantage.
RU loaded the bases again with one out in the eighth but FAU’s sixth pitcher of the game registered two big strikeouts to get the Owls out of the inning, setting up Fonseca’s late-game heroics.
The Scarlet Knights were once again victimized by runners left on base as RU stranded 14 bases runners in Tuesday night’s game, leaving the bases loaded in the seventh and eighth innings.
Grose had two doubles to lead four Scarlet Knights – Frazier, Meade and Tim Querns (Cherry Hill, NJ) – with multiple hits on the evening.
Rutgers enters the final leg of its spring break road trip, traveling to Lynchburg, VA, for a three-game series at Liberty University, beginning on Friday.
2006 Rutgers Baseball
Rutgers at FAU
Mar 14, 2006 at Boca Raton, FL (FAU Stadium)
Rutgers 4 (3-9)
Player AB R H RBI BB SO PO A LOB
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GROSE, Jeff cf........... 4 2 2 0 1 0 5 0 0
EDWARDS, Tom dh.......... 3 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0
FRAZIER, Todd ss......... 3 0 2 1 2 0 1 4 1
HILL, Ryan lf............ 4 0 1 1 1 1 5 0 2
HOOK, Steve 1b........... 5 0 1 0 0 3 5 1 3
FELIZ, Luis rf........... 4 0 0 1 1 3 2 0 0
QUERNS, Tim 3b........... 5 0 2 0 0 1 0 1 3
MEADE, Frank c........... 5 1 2 1 0 2 3 0 4
BIONDE, Mike 2b.......... 4 1 1 0 0 1 2 1 0
STAVRAKIS, Nick ph...... 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1
SPICER, Sean p........... 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0
WOODHULL, Tim p......... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Totals................... 38 4 11 4 5 13 24 7 14
FAU 6 (9-11)
Player AB R H RBI BB SO PO A LOB
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HAFER, Jordan lf......... 2 1 1 1 2 0 0 0 0
COOK, Daniel 3b.......... 4 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1
RAMIREZ, Ovy dh.......... 4 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1
MCKENNA, Mike 1b......... 3 0 0 0 1 0 6 1 1
ALBANO, Anthony rf....... 4 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 0
SILVERSMITH, Alex c...... 1 1 0 0 3 0 13 0 0
FONSECA, Alex ss......... 4 1 1 3 0 0 4 1 2
BLOCK, William 2b........ 4 1 1 1 0 0 1 3 1
DUARTE, Mario cf......... 4 0 0 0 0 1 3 0 0
MANN, Will p............. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0
BRADLEY, Anthony p...... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
EBERHART, Chris p....... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
SALIVAR, Mike p......... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
TOMLIN, Andrew p........ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
SCHMAL, Joel p.......... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
CROTTA, Mike p.......... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Totals................... 30 6 6 6 6 3 27 8 6
Score by Innings R H E
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Rutgers............. 001 000 210 - 4 11 0
FAU................. 001 020 03X - 6 6 3
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E - MCKENNA; FONSECA 2. DP - FAU 1. LOB - Rutgers 14; FAU 6. 2B - GROSE 2.
HR - MEADE; HAFER; FONSECA; BLOCK. HBP - EDWARDS. SH - EDWARDS. SB -
FRAZIER; HOOK; COOK; ALBANO.
Rutgers IP H R ER BB SO AB BF
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SPICER, Sean........ 7.1 5 4 4 5 3 27 32
WOODHULL, Tim....... 0.2 1 2 2 1 0 3 4
FAU IP H R ER BB SO AB BF
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MANN, Will.......... 6.0 7 1 1 1 7 25 26
BRADLEY, Anthony.... 0.1 1 2 2 1 0 1 3
EBERHART, Chris..... 0.0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1
SALIVAR, Mike....... 0.2 0 0 0 2 1 2 4
TOMLIN, Andrew...... 0.1 1 1 1 0 0 2 2
SCHMAL, Joel........ 0.2 1 0 0 0 2 4 5
CROTTA, Mike........ 1.0 1 0 0 0 3 4 4
Win - SCHMAL (3-2). Loss - WOODHULL (0-1). Save - CROTTA (3).
WP - SPICER; MANN. HBP - by SCHMAL (EDWARDS).
Umpires - HP: Eddie Rundle 1B: Ron Russo 3B: Bob Irsay
Start: 7:00 Time: 3:07 Attendance: 534
EBERHART faced 1 batter in the 7th.
Game: 314FAU
