Owls Set to Face #1 Miami Tonight

Each season the FAU baseball team affords itself the opportunity to knock off some of the top teams in the country. The problem is that the Owls hardly ever do so.

This season the Owls (formerly known as the Blue Wave before a university-wide branding effort in 2005 that mandated that all teams become the "Owls") have been swept in a season-opening series by #4 North Carolina and lost 16-7 to Miami last week.

The Owls (18-11, 8-5 Sun Belt) are a pretty good team with a high-powered offense, led by right fielder Mike McKenna. A major hurdle that FAU never seems to be able to clear is obtaining shut-down pitching. High-powered arms are hard to come by at the Major League level, let alone the second tier of Division I college baseball. The best pitchers that don't go pro out of high school end up at places like UNC, Miami and Florida State. The Owls are left with high school all stars, like Mickey Storey of Deerfield Beach, that can survive in the Sun Belt Conference, but usually get bombed by some of the better teams.

To compound the issue, FAU saves its best starting pitching for weekend conference matchups.

The results? Not pretty. In 24 all-time games between the teams since FAU baseball turned D-I in 1994, Miami leads the series 21-3.

Hopefully the Owls can reverse the trend for once at Alex Rodriguez Whatever They Call it at Mark Light Stadium in Coral Gables at 7 p.m. The Hurricanes are ranked #1 for the first time since 2004.