JACKSONVILLE, Fla. –In the midst of rapidly declining temperatures across the First Coast, the Jacksonville University baseball team's Opening Day at John Sessions Stadium was spoiled as visiting Middle Tennessee State took the first of a three game set, 7-2. The Dolphins will remain at home for the next six-games and will meet with MTSU tomorrow at 2 p.m. before the final game of the 2015 opening series concludes Sunday with a 1 p.m. first pitch. 

"We did a nice job after giving up a run in the first," said head coach Tim Montez. "Coming back with two runs in the first, we had an opportunity to put pressure on (MTSU) and we didn't do it on the bases. We made some mental running errors early, and that kept us from being aggressive on the base paths. We are a team that wants to put pressure on our opponents with speed, and tonight we made mistakes that held us back from doing that."

In the first frame, the Dolphins countered the one run at the top of the inning with textbook top of the order baseball. Senior Angelo Amendolare (2-for-5), starting in his 52nd game as a Dolphin, led off with a single down the third base line, advancing to second on a throwing error. Senior Cameron Gibson (1-for-3) laid down a bunt to advance Amendolare and up came the Dolphins returning .371 hitter from a year ago, junior Connor Marabell.

Marabell (1-for-4) drove the ball opposite field into left, scoring Amendolare. Junior JJ Gould (1-for-3), in his first at-bat as a Dolphin, recorded the single, advancing Marabell to third after fellow transfer student and sophomore Austin Hays (1-for-3) walked then advanced to second on Gould's single. Then came junior Dylan Dillard (0-for-3), who would drive a ball to right field—an RBI sacrifice fly, deep enough to score Marabell from third.

That would conclude the scoring for the home team as six hits then on, did not manufacture another run. Sophomore Alex Seifert (1-for-2) starting at third base, reached base three times with a single and two walks.

"The back end of our bullpen was really good tonight," said Montez. "That was a real positive to have those guys come in and get big outs late in ballgames."

Back from injury and starting the back end of relief work, senior Jeff Tanner threw two and a third inning of two hit baseball with two strikeouts and an earned run in the seventh inning after fanning one out with runners threatening, to close the door on the top of the fifth inning.

After giving up a solo homerun, Tanner would answer back with the rare 1-6-3 triple play after an errant bunt by Ronnie Jebavy stayed in the air for Tanner to collect and throw to second and Amendolare to first. Three outs in a blink of an eye recorded the first triple play in more than 14 years of Dolphins history.

A couple of debuts on the bump for the Dolphins were sophomore Shane Wise and freshman Spencer Stockton. In the top of the ninth inning, Wise would strike out two in the frame, while allowing one earned off a sacrifice fly from Kaleb King (0-for-3) scoring Jared Allen (2-for-5) who doubled with one out. Stockton would leave one man stranded after striking out one and walking one—no runs for MTSU in the eighth.  

With two Dolphins making their debuts in the batting order as well as some newly started positions, nerves may have set in for Montez's squad.

"It was a little bit of nerves," said Montez. "It wasn't a lack of effort by any means. We just need to slow the game down and take what the other teams give us. These matchups get us ready for conference play. We got a lot of opportunity to learn, grow and to get better." 

Senior Justin Russell started on the bump for the Fins and provided 4.2 innings of work, surrendering two runs on seven hits and recorded three strike outs.

For MTSU, pitcher Johnathan Frebis (1-0) got the win after not giving up a run for four innings after the first stanza. Nate Hoffman (SV) would close the door on the Dolphins with four innings of shutout baseball, behind solid defense—one hit, no strikeouts in the juniors outing.

The Dolphins are back in action tomorrow with first pitch set from John Sessions Stadium for 2 p.m.

@JUBaseball | #FearTheFin