Florida Atlantic University’s baseball team lost to Notre Dame 7-1 in the series finale on Sunday afternoon in Boca Raton. With this win, Notre Dame secured the series by taking two out of three games.
Freshman pitcher Garrett Grant started for the Owls and delivered four scoreless innings, managing to escape bases-loaded situations in both the second and third innings. Brando Leroux made a key defensive play in the second by turning a line drive into a double play, ending Notre Dame’s scoring threat. Despite Grant’s effort, Florida Atlantic’s offense struggled, leaving runners on base in each of the first four innings.
The game shifted after Grant left due to a pitch count. In the fifth inning, Notre Dame capitalized on two singles, an error, and a sacrifice fly to score twice against FAU’s bullpen. The Irish added four more runs in the eighth and another in the ninth. The Owls avoided being shut out when John Martinez drove in a run with an RBI single in their final at-bat.
Head Coach John McCormack said, “We had opportunities offensively, but we couldn’t string together good at-bats. It wasn’t a good Saturday and Sunday for us. Friday, we had some really good at-bats. These last two days, though, we’ve just been pressing too much. When you have a team with a lot of older, experienced players, they expect to be really good, and sometimes this happens.”
FAU ended with seven hits; Ian Collier and Brett Patten each had two hits while Martinez earned his fifth RBI of the series.
On the mound for FAU, Grant struck out two batters while allowing five hits and one walk across four innings. Ryan Buckler was charged with the loss after giving up two runs—one earned—in relief work. Kyzer Smith threw two shutout innings during his debut appearance for FAU.
The Owls will return to action when they host Missouri on Tuesday evening at FAU Baseball Stadium.
