Sycamores Win Fifth-Straight; Claim Series Opener Over #20 Florida Atlantic

By Timothy McCaughan

Indiana State

BOCA RATON, Fla. – Indiana State continued its dominance in the state of Florida Thursday evening as the team picked up its fifth-straight victory during a 7-5 win against No. 20 Florida Atlantic at FAU Stadium.

Indiana State (8-4) tallied 10 base hits in the win marking the fifth-straight game with 10 or more hits for the club. Leading the way at the plate was redshirt freshman Grant Magill who reached base in four of his five at bats with a single, two walks and a hit-by-pitch. The catcher scored three of the seven Sycamore runs. Josue Urdaneta and outfielder Max Wright (Toronto, Ont.) added two hits each while Mike Sears tallied his third home run of the season with a two-run shot in the third.

Cam Edmonson was the pitcher of record for the Sycamores, improving to 1-1 on the season after 1 1/3 innings of relief work. The redshirt lefty struck out two of the five batters he faced. Connor Fenlong recorded his second save of the season after closing out the final 1 1/3 innings of action. He walked one and struck out three in his outing.

Connor Cline made his third start of the season going 6 1/3 innings and allowing five runs and seven hits. After FAU jumped out to an early lead in the bottom of the first on a three-run home run, Fenlong settled in and pitched five scoreless innings, including a stretch in which the right-hander retired nine-straight FAU batters.

Trailing 3-0 in the second, ISU began chipping away at the FAU (8-4) lead as Urdaneta brought home a run on an infield single before Sears blasted his two-run home run over the wall in left in the third inning to tie the game.

The Sycamores took their first lead of the day in the fourth as Magill scored on a wild pitch. Wright put the Sycamores ahead 5-3 with a single up the middle in the sixth that plated Magill once again.

It was not until the seventh that the Owls were able to get anything going offensively – leading the inning off with consecutive singles. Following a sacrifice bunt, Steven Loden singled down the line in left to plate two runs and tie the game at five signaling the end of the day for Cline. Edmonson entered and picked up a groundout and later retired an Owl on a strikeout to end the frame.

Indiana State came back immediately to regain the lead in the eighth as Magill led off the inning with a walk and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt. Terre Haute, Ind. native, Jordan Schaffer sent him to the plate with a single up the middle. Newcomer Seth Gergely added an insurance run in the ninth with a single to left to plate Tyler Nelson from second.