FAU stomped UCF 14-3 to improve to 26-16,13-11 on the year. Brandon Kloess improved to 6-2 on the year with the win. FAU had a great day hitting-Brian Lipman homered and Tim Mascia went 3 for 6 with 2 RBI's for the Owls. The big surprise is Derek Hutton finally broke free of his slump going 2 for 4 with 4 RBI's. It was great to see such a great weekend from FAU. Hopefully this will help confidence wise for the big road trip to mighty Georgia Tech next weekend.
I was concerned about the 10-day layoff heading into this series, and rightfully so. I'm very disappointed in the effort today. We seemed to be trying to crack every pitch over the fence instead of getting on and running the bases. WAY too many fly balls today. The pitching wasn't up to snuff today, either. Every time Billek starts off shaky you can pretty much write him off. I don't even want to talk about our bullpen. Some days they can shut down anyone and other days they just throw tomatoes. I don't like the idea that we've now lost 3 out of our last 4 games heading into crunch time.
Burrowing, I was very impressed with Mickey Storey on Friday. You've got a good one there. His breaking ball had our guys swinging at air all night long. Eight strong innings from a freshman? Pretty damn good.
Holy $hit, Well apparently I picked a good weekend to get away for my 5 year wedding anniversary. FAU pitching comes through in game 3 and UCF folds, our bullpen is horrible. Billek and Newlin have shown brilliance at times and have been down right aweful at times. Our bullpen will prevent us doing anything in post season and I sure hope Dee Brown can come through for once in a clutch series. I hope Jay's squad realized the implications of the Troy series, it's huge.
Agnew
God, that long break screwed our team up.
Losing that bad to a weak FAU team is absolute crap.
Winning this series made the miserable FAU season worthwhile. This was my first experience at UCF and their fans are now right behind the 'Canes as my "Most Hated Fans". What a bunch of whiners!!! I can only hope Troy kicks your butts worse that the Owls did!
Our whining fans will be whining at a regional. Will yours?
Stop going to baseball games and start selling tickets for football or you guys will never stay in DI. It's too bad, you had a better team than us last year (maybe even the last 2 years), but will have to settle for IAA.
FAU will be staying in Divsion 1 in Football due to the fact that they waived the 15,000 actual attendance requirement. The 15,000 attendance was what would have killed FAU but with that out of the way FAU will be staying in D1. Now you only have to have 15,000 tickets sold-and they dont even have to all be at full-price. Free tickets given to students will count towards the 15,000 also. In addition you only have to make the 15,000 tickets sold every other year. So as you can see they have GREATLY reduced the attendance requirements.
Also FAU will play a home game against Oklahoma State this year on a Thursday Night on ESPN at Dolphin Stadium which will help the attendance greatly and finances also. ESPN is picking up the tab for Oklahoma State's travel-the FAU athletic department will be paying Oklahoma State nothing for coming here!
GoOwls-Whether you hate UCF or not it is in FAU's best interest that UCF beat Troy this weekend. UCF is a lock for the NCAA bid regardless so if they win it doesnt hurt us, but we are competing with Troy for a second bid from the ASUN. Athough Troy won the series agaisnt us 2 to 1 we are neck and neck with them for a bid. Troy are 29-14 and FAU is 26-16, but we have a stronger RPI and strength of schedule. If Troy were to lose 2 or 3 more games this weekend it will help our chances a lot, especially since we will no doubt be losing a few to #6 Georgia Tech.
If FAU's post-season chances werent affected Id root for Troy also since they are a Sun-Belt team, but since a late-season Troy collapse would help us-I say GO UCF-SWEEP Troy!!! :D
Honestly, I'm nothing short of impressed with FAUs accomplishments.
FAU is much more accomplished than USF when you consider:
NCAA appearances: FAU 1, USF 0
Superregional appearances/Regional championships: FAU 1, USF 0 (and UCF too!)
Football is where you can make the most honest comparison. You had a lot less to work with in terms of an established athletics program and C-USA membership in hand. I honestly don't think UCF can be compared to USF and FAU and FIU because it's a different world now than it was in 1979. Heck, I think we're still the only school to go from DIII all the way to IA.
But in the short time, you went as far as UCF did in our IAA duration. The semifinals. Given a few more years, you would have probably won a championship.
Your AD is doing something right. Shellenberger, Doherty, Cooney is as good of a lineup as we have. The OSU deal you have is just rediculous. Amazing.
GoOwls Wrote:Winning this series made the miserable FAU season worthwhile. This was my first experience at UCF and their fans are now right behind the 'Canes as my "Most Hated Fans". What a bunch of whiners!!! I can only hope Troy kicks your butts worse that the Owls did!
We'll be "whining" all the way to a regional.
You won't be.
Burrowing - you have to admit, staying in IA only because the rules were relaxed and that free tickets that you give away count towards attendance in not something to brag about. You guys have come a long way and dare I say that there isn't a huge difference between the football teams that FAU and UCF can put on the field, but especially with the on-campus stadium that we're building we a way ahead of you in fan support (and we're not exactly drawing 80k a game here).
I wouldnt say I was "bragging" about it-Id love to see a lot more people in the stands. I was only pointing out to the earlier poster that FAU wont be getting banished back to I-AA. Whether they deserve to is another story.
I never suggested FAU was anywhere near UCF in fan support. Lets face it you guys have a big head start on us-back when you guys started football we didnt even have an athletic department at all. Weve only had 4 years of football and only 12 in baseball and basketball at the D1 level; so give us a little time to build. I think we are doing very well considering how short of a time weve had to grow. Joining a Division 1 football conference this year and a having a nationally televised ESPN game will only continue to help that growth. :)
Oh and by the way we would have beaten you guys last year had we played on the field!
That's great that FAU pulled off an ESPN game. I can't believe that, I would be going nuts!!