GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Jacksonville University baseball struck first, but a big first inning fueled Florida to an 8-4 win at McKethan Stadium on Tuesday night.
The Dolphins (21-16) allowed five runs in the bottom of the first to surrender the lead and trailed the rest of the way.
The night started with a
Ruben Someillan single to center, and he went to second on a wild pitch before
Scott Dubrule singled to move him to third.
Angel Camacho delivered the first run of the night on a sacrifice fly to center and JU led 1-0 heading into the bottom of the first.
Austin Temple (2-1) gave up a leadoff home run to tie it, before a runner reached on an error and he hit the next batter. Three consecutive singles put Florida on top 4-1, before Temple got a strikeout and a caught stealing at third on the same play to record the first two outs of the inning. He gave way to
Kevin Faulkner, who allowed a run scoring single before the first inning ended with the Gators up 5-1.
After that, pitching settled down for both sides, with neither team getting a runner into scoring position again until the sixth. Faulkner worked 2.1 innings, allowing only the one hit and walking one while striking out two.
Nick Love relieved him and struck out four straight in two innings of scoreless relief.
Florida added a run to make it 6-1 in the sixth, when a two-out single plated a man from second.
JU rallied in the eighth after leaving men in scoring position each of the previous two innings. Camacho, who turned an unassisted double play to end the seventh, led off the eighth with a solo shot to left, his team high ninth of the year.
Jacob Southern followed that up with a single and a liner to third was robbed by a leaping grab, preventing
John Cassala from collecting a hit. With two outs,
Cory Garrastazu drove one out to right, his two-run homer cutting the deficit to two, 6-4.
Florida tacked on some insurance in the bottom half. A leadoff walk advanced to second on a wild pitch, and went to third on a deep fly ball to center. The infield came in to get a groundout for the second out, but a walk followed by a single to center scored both baserunners, extending the advantage back out to four, 8-4.
Jacksonville stays on the road to battle FGCU in an ASUN Conference series starting this Thursday at 6:30 p.m.
