What: Florida Atlantic vs Fordham
When: February 28th 6:30 PM | Mar 1st 4PM | 2nd 12PM
Where: FAU Baseball Stadium
Video: FAU Sports TV
Stats: Stats Broadcast
Projected Pitchers:
FAU – LHP Trey Beard (1-0, 5.00 ERA)
Fordham – RHP Aidan Dowd (0-1, 15.63 ERA)
FAU – RHP Tyler Murphy (1-0, 8.38 ERA)
Fordham – RHP Mike Rabayda (0-2, 6.23 ERA)
FAU – RHP James Litman (1-0, 0.00 ERA)
Fordham– LHP AJ Pino (0-0, 13.50 ERA)
Owl Notables
The Owls boast a 7-1 record with two series wins and two power conference victories. The most recent of those wins came against UCF on Tuesday night. Offensively, FAU is flexing a .334 BA with a .989 OBP. Pitching sits at a 4.19 ERA and is allowing a .244 opponent BA.
Leading the way for Florida Atlantic has been their outfield. The trio has posted some phenomenal numbers thus far into the season.
Junior Jake Duer (pictured below) leads all Owls in BA with a .514 average, 6 RBI’s, and 19 hits. He is trailed by Redshirt Freshman John Martinez (.370 AVG, 8 RBI) and INF Marshall Lipsey (.333 AVG, 7 RBI, .667 OBP%).
As a squad, FAU has a .334 BA alongside their 24 doubles and 11 home runs after their first eight games.
Last weekend’s series against UConn saw the Owls plate 33 runs in their three contests. FAU went 2-1, claiming the series victory. After the offensive explosion, the bats were not as loud against Central Florida. The Knights led up until the 6th inning. However, a two-out rally sparked the Owls into the lead. Florida Atlantic gained the win, 4-3, on the road Tuesday night.
John Schroder has had his issues at the plate as his BA sits at .103 entering the weekend. The Senior catcher/infielder has a great opportunity to find his groove during the series.
The rotation for Coach McCormack has stayed the same so far this season. However, the Owls lineup has varied a lot on the young season.
While FAU’s lineup has changed multiple times so far, this is what the starters could look like.
C Dylan LaPointe
1B Jake Millan
2B John Martinez
SS Brando Leroux
3B Nick Romano
RF Jake Duer
CF Marshall Lipsey
LF John Schroeder
After the weekend, Florida Atlantic will head to Gainesville as the Owls will face off against the Florida Gators.
Ram Notables
Since 2022, the Rams have not had a winning season.
Fordham enters this season already in the hole at 2-6 with their wins coming in midweek contests against Harvard and Iona.
In the Rams eight games played, they have posted 47 runs and a .281 BA. Their offense seems to be pretty average, but their downfall has been their arms.
Fordham’s pitching staff has a 10.57 ERA and has given up 88 runs. It also does not help when the defense has accumulated 16 errors on the year as well.
A quartet of Rams are hitting above .300 with Sophomore infielder Madden Ocko (.360 BA., 5 RBI, OPS .924) leading the way. Behind Ocko is Freshman Taylor Kirk who has had a nice start to season with a .333 BA, nine hits, and an OBP of .455
Junior Daniel Bucciero is also another one to watch. Bucciero was listed a top 50 First Baseman in the nation by D1 Baseball.
With how rocky Fordham’s pitching has been, Florida Atlantic should be able to take advantage and win the series, if not sweep the Rams.