JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – JJ Gould hit three times, Parker Perez drove in two runs, and Jeff Tanner pitched six strong innings in a 6-2 victory against Florida State Tuesday at Sessions Stadium. The win gave Jacksonville (29-17) its first season sweep of No.4 Florida State (32-14).
"That was a nice job of our team answering back from a below-average weekend mentally, "said Head Coach Tim Montez. "We challenged them to come back with a championship mindset that they have had most of the year. Hats off to every one of those guys in the locker room for answering back. Great job by our seniors, Tanner for settling down after the first inning, Gould a senior captain with a nice night tonight, and Perez setting the tone at the top of the lineup."
Tanner (3-0) went a season-best six innings in his first start of the spring. He gave up six hits and allowed just one run by posting five consecutive scoreless frames. Tanner both walked and struck out three batters.
"That first inning I got off to a rough start and I knew I didn't have my best stuff today during that inning," said Tanner. "But I decided to make my pitches and Franco Guardascione did a good job of calming me down. I had to make timely pitches and my defense backed me up today. We had timely hits and overall it was a great team win."
Florida State opened the scoring with an RBI single by Quincy Nieporte through the right side in the first. The Seminoles cashed in on two-straight walks by Tanner, but a 3-6 double play ended the inning.
After turning another twin-killer in the second, Jacksonville used the momentum for three runs in the home half of the inning. Connor Stephens and Guardascione walked, and Nathan Koslowski beat out a bunt to load the bags. Perez ripped a double to right field to score two and give Jacksonville the lead. Then, Austin Hays swung on the first pitch he saw and sent a sacrifice fly to straightaway center field, and Koslowski narrowly beat the throw home to give JU a 3-1 advantage.
The Dolphins put another three-spot on the board in the fifth. Gould led off the action with a single to right field. Sam Armstrong drew a walk, and Angel Camacho advanced both runners on a bunt. Reliever Ed Voyles walked Stephens intentionally to load the bases. Guardascione then capitalized with a two-run single through the left side. Dakota Julylia capped off the scoring with an RBI single lofted to center field.
"I think this win was big for us this year in terms of winning against quality teams. Any time you can sweep anyone it is huge because it's not easy to do against a top-10 team like them," said Gould. "It was a little extra fun for me to come out performing against my former team."
Mike Schappell entered out of the bullpen to begin the seventh and created a jam with a pair of Seminoles in scoring position, but got out of it with a strikeout looking of Nieporte. He tossed along another scoreless inning in the eighth, and handed over pitching duties to Mike Cassala in the ninth, who surrendered one run off one hit.
Gould led the Dolphin attack with three hits, and Perez and Guardascione each drove in two runs. Perez and Koslowski each had two hits.
"Koslowski is swinging the bat better for us as of late, which is huge for us down the road," said Montez.
Seminole starter Andrew Karp (1-1) took the loss with three runs off two hits and three walks in one-plus inning.
Jacksonville faces UCF in Orlando, Fla., Wednesday with a 4:00 p.m. first pitch.
