BOCA RATON, Fla. - Four home runs by Florida Atlantic University gave the Owls a 9-4 victory over the Rutgers baseball team Tuesday evening at FAU Stadium. The Owls (16-4) hit three-straight home runs in the sixth to gain the final advantage over the Scarlet Knights (6-7) in the early see-saw battle.
Junior Todd Frazier (Toms River, N.J.) led the game off with a solo home run to right field to Rutgers an early lead.
RU held the edge until the third inning when Florida Atlantic plated a pair of runs on three-straight hits to take a 2-1 advantage. FAU threatened to score a third in the inning on a double with a man on first but a throw from center fielder Donny Callahan (Sparta,N.J.) to the shortstop Frazier and a relay throw home gunned down the runner to prevent the score.
Three-straight hits by Tim Querns (Cherry Hill, N.J.), Tom Edwards (Caldwell, N.J.) and Frank Meade (Linden, N.J.) scored RU's second run of the game to tie it up at 2-2 in the fourth, but the Owls countered with a run of their own to re-gain a one-run advantage in the bottom half of the frame.
After a scoreless fifth, Rutgers jumped back on top in the top of the sixth. The Scarlet Knights used two hits and a walk to load the bases with one out to chase Owls starter Brandon Cooney out of the game. New FAU pitcher Alex Pepe got pinch hitter Vic Cegles (Phoenix, Ariz.) to hit into a fielder's choice for the second out, but RU rallied for two runs when Frazier drew a four-pitch walk to bring the first run home and senior Mike Bionde (Pompton Plains, N.J.) laced a ball to right field for a single to score the second run and put the Scarlet Knights back on top 4-3.
That lead was short-lived, however, changing hands for a third time in the first six innings as FAU scored three runs on three-straight pitches in the bottom half of the frame when Nick Arata, William Block and Daniel Bomback hit back-to-back-to-back home runs for the Owls. The first two home runs ended Rutgers starter Sean Spicer's (Pearl River, N.Y.) day with lefty reliever Matt Patterson (Passaic, N,J.) dealing the final blast of the frame.
FAU added to its total with three two-out runs in the eighth, capped by Bomback's second home run of the contest to make it 9-4.
Spicer worked 5.2 innings, striking out two, while giving up five runs on 12 hits to move to 1-1 on the season. Pepe improved to 2-0, allowing just one hit and no runs in 2.2 innings of relief. Cooney struck out five for FAU in 5.1 innings of work.
Frazier's home run was his team-leading sixth of the season and 26th of his career to put him in sole possession of fifth place on the school's career home run list. He reached base four times in five plate appearances with three walks in the contest.
Seven of the nine Rutgers starting hitters recorded a hit in the contest. Bionde and Edwards each collected two in the game.
Arata, Block and Bomback each had three hits for Florida Atlantic, which collected 17 hits in the game - tying for the most (Georgia Tech) by a Rutgers opponent this season.
The loss puts Rutgers below the .500 mark for the season for just the second time in the 2007 campaign.
Rutgers returns to action tomorrow with a game against the University of Miami at 7:00 p.m. in Miami.
