OMAHA, Neb. – Franco Guardascione delivered a two-out RBI single in the top of the 10th inning and Jacksonville hammered 12 hits in a 4-3 10-inning win against Creighton Friday at TD Ameritrade Park Omaha.
"That was a great team win and a good college baseball game between two evenly matched opponents," said Head Coach Tim Montez. "We left a few opportunities on the base paths tonight but did a good job of coming up with big plays when we needed to."
Jacksonville's (17-8) led off the 10th inning with a four-pitch walk to pinch-hitter Chris Gau. Michael Babb then entered as a pinch-runner, and after an Angel Camacho strikeout, Babb advanced to second on a Nathan Koslowski groundout. That allowed Guardascione to set up his game-winning hit through the right side.
Mike Cassala entered out of the bullpen and earned his seventh save of the year without allowing a hit.
Michael Baumann ran into trouble in the second inning and allowed three runs on three hits and one Dolphin error. After the frame, he would not allow another hit and walk only two batters. He finished with two earned runs on four hits, two walks, and five strikeouts over and matched a season-best seven innings.
"Baumann did an outstanding job of turning it up a gear after giving up the three-spot. That's going to help him going forward into conference play," said Montez. "Our three freshmen out of the bullpen did an outstanding job."
Ryan Granda and Kyle Arjona each pitched one scoreless inning of relief.
JJ Gould got the Dolphins their first runs with a two-run double in the fourth inning. Austin Hays led off the inning with a single and Sam Armstrong followed him with a double down the right field line.
Parker Perez brought home the tying run in the seventh on another two-out hit, this time on a single opposite-way into left field.
Creighton (16-6) starter Rollie Lacy went 6.2 innings and gave up three runs. David Gerber (0-1) was tagged with the loss with one run on one hit over 1.1 innings.
Game two of the series is scheduled for 3:00 p.m. ET Saturday in Omaha.
