JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Jacksonville University baseball erased an early deficit and held Lipscomb to just one run over the final six innings to win 6-5 on Friday night at John Sessions Stadium.
Angel Camacho went 3-4 with a home run and three RBI and
Jagger McCoy pitched three scoreless innings in relief to help the Dolphins (13-9) to the win on the opening night of ASUN Conference play.
"Man, oh man, Friday night, opening of conference play," said Head Coach
Chris Hayes. "To get the 'W' is huge."
Lipscomb struck early, taking a 1-0 lead in the second when a leadoff single advanced to second on a throwing error, took third on a passed ball and scored on a ground out. The Bisons stretched the advantage to 4-0 an inning later. A leadoff double went to third on a groundout and scored on an infield single before a second double of the inning cleared the bases.
The JU offense showed signs of life in the bottom of the third.
Kyle Richardson walked to lead off the inning and Dakota Juylia singled to put two on with one out.
Angel Camacho drove in Richardson with a base hit and Juylia was aggressive on the base paths, scoring on a wild pitch two batters later to cut the deficit in half.
JU starter
Tyler Santana (2-1) settled down as the night went on. After giving up the four runs through the first three innings, he only allowed one base runner over the course of the next two innings, all while the JU offense came to his support.
Trailing 4-2 to start the fifth, the Dolphins again put the leadoff man on base.
Ruben Someillan was hit by a pitch and Camacho crushed his sixth home run of the season to left, tying the game at four and tying a career-high for home runs in a season. After
Cory Heffron singled with two outs and stole second,
Duncan Hunter shot a base hit up the middle to give JU the lead for the first time.
After walking the leadoff man in the sixth, Santana was lifted for McCoy, who faced the minimum in his three scoreless innings of relief, striking out two and allowing only one hit.
"My mentality was to help the team out anyway I can, try to get ahead of batters and get some early outs, keep the pace of the game going and keep guys off base," said McCoy.
Jacksonville tacked on an insurance run in the sixth.
Jacob Southern greeted the Lipscomb reliever with a single to right field and moved up to second on Someillan's groundout.
Dakota Julylia then delivered Southern with a two-out single to center to make it 6-4.
Zach Bryant pitched the ninth, walking the first man he faced and giving up a single and a run on a sacrifice fly before getting a strikeout and a pop out to end it and earn his second save of the year.
Jacksonville looks for its first conference series win of the year tomorrow night at 7 p.m.
