JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Jacksonville University baseball lost game two of the weekend series to North Alabama, 9-2, on Saturday at John Sessions Stadium.
The Dolphins (20-15, 6-5) gave up four runs in the second and trailed the rest of the way to drop the series to the Lions.
"We gave them six outs in that one inning and they took advantage," said Head Coach
Chris Hayes. "We didn't play well enough to win this game today."
North Alabama scored first for the second straight day. A solo home run to right center in the first gave UNA a 1-0 lead, but JU fought back with a two-out rally in the bottom half.
Angel Camacho singled through the hole at short and
Jacob Southern followed that up with a double that he ripped down the line in left to tie it at one after one.
The second inning was the most troublesome of the day for
Trent Palmer (3-4). A leadoff bunt was thrown high to first by Southern allowing the first man to reach, and then a bloop single that fell between three Dolphins put two on with no one out. A sacrifice bunt back to the mound was fielded by Palmer, but his throw to third to get the lead runner was errant allowing a run to score. With runners on second and third and no outs, another bunt down the first base line led to a throwing error from
John Cassala to first, which allowed two runs to score and the runner went all the way to third. A squeeze play pushed in a fourth run and North Alabama carried a 5-1 lead on the strength of only three hits thanks to the three errors.
No one scored again until the sixth, when a leadoff double, followed by a sacrifice bunt to move the runner to third came in to score on a single to center to extend the Lions lead to 6-1.
Cassala led off the bottom of the sixth with a solo homer to left, his second of the year to bring JU back within four, 6-2.
Palmer finished the day matching his career-high of seven innings, allowing nine hits and six runs, but only two were earned. He also punched out seven North Alabama hitters.
UNA kept the pressure on in the latter innings, tacking on three more in the eighth off of four hits off two different JU relievers.
Jacksonville tries to avoid the series sweep tomorrow, with first pitch scheduled for noon.
