Marshall Falls in Series Opener to FAU

Box Score

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – The Marshall University baseball team (20-32-1, 9-19 C-USA) fell to the Florida Atlantic Owls (32-21, 17-11 C-USA), 8-6, Thursday afternoon at the Kennedy Center in the series opener.

Herd starting pitcher Jeffrey Purnell came out and threw a pair of scoreless innings to start the contest.

The Marshall bats roared in the bottom of the second as Jordon Billups and Kyle Schaefer smashed back-to-back homers to make it 2-0 Herd. Each hit earned the respective batter their 11th home run of the season.

The Owls clawed a run back in the top of third when Jalen DeBose sent a shot over the center-field wall as Marshall held a 2-1 advantage.

After Purnell hurled a scoreless top of the fourth, Schaefer reestablished a two-run Herd advantage, 3-1, when he sent his second homer of the day over the wall in center the next half inning. It was the junior's 12th of the season.

FAU took the lead in the top of the fifth on the strength of three runs, 4-3. Armando Albert homered to right-center field. A pair of owls reached back-to-back on a single and a walk with Jackson Ross and Mitchell Hartigan batting in the pair to push in front.

The visitors tacked on a pair of insurance runs in the seventh on the strength of two solo homers increasing the advantage to 6-3.

Marshall responded in the bottom of the frame with a pair of hits; Christian Lucio belted a single to right and Geordon Blanton smashed a shot to the scoreboard in left field, cutting the deficit to one, 6-5.

The teams traded runs in the eighth with FAU scoring on small ball with DeBose scoring on a single by Nolan Schanuel. Ryan Leitch pulled the run back with a homer, his 11th of the season, that went over the scoreboard in left field as the Owls led 7-6.

The guests added an insurance run in the ninth as the Herd offense was unable to mount a comeback, dropping game one of the series 8-6.

Luke Edwards saw an on-base streak of 61 games come to an end in the ballgame.

UP NEXT
Marshall continues its final home series with FAU at the Kennedy Center on Friday with first pitch scheduled for 1 p.m.

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Team Stats

Ryan Leitch

Kyle Schaefer

Christian Lucio

Daniel Carinci

Players Mentioned

Jordon Billups

Geordon Blanton

Luke Edwards

Ryan Leitch

Christian Lucio

Jeffrey Purnell

Kyle Schaefer

Players Mentioned

Jordon Billups

Geordon Blanton

Luke Edwards

Ryan Leitch

Christian Lucio

Jeffrey Purnell

Kyle Schaefer

Marshall University Athletics