TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Jacksonville University baseball could not hold an early lead at Florida State, and fell to the #16 Seminoles 10-4 on Wednesday at Dick Howser Stadium.
JU (31-17) matched FSU (33-16) in hits with 11, but that was not enough to overcome the timely hitting of the host school.
"When you go on the road and play good teams, you have to play well in all aspects of the game," said Head Coach Chris Hayes. "Tonight, I thought we were extremely competitive at the plate, but unfortunately did not do a good enough job of attacking the zone."
Jacksonville struck first, when Chris Lehane led off the game with a walk. He advanced to third on Scott Dubrule's hit-and-run and scored on Angel Camacho's sacrifice fly. The Seminoles struck back in the bottom of the first, when a leadoff walk was followed by back-to-back singles. A throwing error into second base on a walk allowed a second run to score and a sacrifice fly made it 3-1 at the end of one.
JU knotted it up in the third. Lehane smacked a one-out double, and an error in left allowed him to advance down to third. Dubrule singled him home, and Camacho roped a double into the gap in left. Dubrule then scored on a wild pitch to tie it at three.
Once again, Florida State had an answer. Matt Meyer (1-1) walked the leadoff man, then got an out on a fielder's choice. Back-to-back singles gave the Seminoles the lead again and ended Meyer's night. A sacrifice fly and RBI double made it 6-3 after three.
"We put too many people on base, and good teams take advantage of that," said Hayes. "Florida State is a really good baseball team."
JU got one back in the seventh, when Duncan Hunter led off the inning with a home run, his second of the year. Florida State got two more in the bottom half, when a two-out walk set up an RBI double and RBI single to make it 8-4.
The Seminoles plated two more in the eighth, with another two-out rally.
Jacksonville heads on the road this weekend for its final conference road series of the season. The first of three at USC Upstate starts Friday at 6 p.m.
