Florida Atlantic University’s baseball team lost 7-2 to Iowa on Friday night in Boca Raton, bringing their season record to 2-3. Iowa improved to 4-1 with the win. The teams are scheduled to play again on Saturday.
Iowa started strong with a home run against Florida Atlantic’s sophomore starter James Litman in the first inning and added two more runs in the third for a 3-0 lead. Florida Atlantic had runners in scoring position during the first two innings but did not score until Marshall Lipsey hit a sacrifice fly in the fifth.
A key moment came in the sixth inning when Iowa loaded the bases with no outs. Reliever Kyzer Smith managed to get out of the inning without allowing any runs by inducing a double play and a ground out. However, Florida Atlantic was unable to build on that momentum and left another runner stranded in scoring position during their next at-bat. Iowa then extended its lead with three runs in the seventh inning and another run in the eighth.
In the ninth, Ian Collier led off with a triple and scored on Kyle Boylston’s single, but that was as close as Florida Atlantic would get.
Head Coach John McCormack said, “We had some opportunities, but when we get guys on base, we’ve just had some bad at-bats. We need to be better in the box; we need to compete more. We’re trying not to make outs instead of trying to get hits.”
Florida Atlantic finished with six hits. Xavier Moronta led with two singles and scored their first run. Collier, Boylston, Brando Leroux, and Patrick Ward contributed one hit each.
Litman pitched five innings, giving up three runs on seven hits while striking out six without issuing a walk. Smith allowed three runs in the seventh after escaping trouble an inning earlier. Dalton Robinson struck out all three batters he faced in a scoreless ninth inning.
The Owls will try to even their record at .500 when they face Iowa again on Saturday at 4:05 p.m.
