In the first elimination game of the Athens Regional, number two seed FAU holds on against the fourth seed Mercer Bears, 10-6.

The offense was potent today as the team collectively combined for 15 hits, but it was all lead by right fielder Bobby Morgensen who had a day collecting two more home runs with five RBIs and was walked twice. Not to mention the great defensive play Morgensen made in the outfield robbing Mercer of a home run in the sixth inning. This is coming off a two home run day against the Seminoles yesterday.

Other contributors on the offensive side including Jared DeSantolo who had a four-hit day, Eric Rivera with a two-run single and Wilfredo Alvarez who drove in a run.

While pitching was the weakest point yesterday, it was much improved today, well until the eighth inning. Jacob Josey started today’s game and pitched a gem. He struck out four, allowed four hits with no earned runs on 108 pitches across seven innings.

“Well, before the game started I asked Jacob Josey to throw a shutout and he responded, so coaching is easy (said with a laugh),” head coach John McCormack told FAUSports.com. “He pitched fantastic, under not such an easy situation. He hasn’t had many starts this year, (with today being) a regional and an elimination game. Thinking back to all the regionals I’ve (been in), this is one of the better performances we’ve had.

With a comfortable lead of 10-0, things got messy in the eighth. Mercer scored five runs which all started by power hitter Kel Johnson who shot one off of Dylan Carter. Carter gave up four earned runs who came out for Michael Schuler who also had an earned run. Next in the roulette of pitchers was Nick Swan who finally ended the eight, but on the first pitch of the ninth inning let go of a leadoff home run.

A few batters later, Zach Schneider came into the game in a closing situation and took care of the side with a double play with his 16th save of the season. So while it was a stressful final innings for the Owls, they held on and advance to the next game.

They await their next opponent and will be decided in tonight’s Georgia-FSU game which will air on ESPN2 at 7:00 eastern. The loser of that game will face FAU tomorrow at noon.

Zachary Weinberger is the sports editor of the University Press. For information regarding this or other stories, email [email protected] or tweet him @ZachWeinberger