KENNESAW, Ga. – It took a come from behind effort, but Jacksonville University baseball rallied to take game one of the series at Kennesaw State 9-6 on Thursday night at Stillwell Stadium.
The Dolphins (30-23, 13-9) collected double-digit hits for the fourth straight game and left the yard four times to capture its fifth consecutive victory, while clinching its fourth straight season of at least 30 wins.
"It was really good to see, up and down the lineup, us swinging the bat the way that we are," said Head Coach
Chris Hayes.
JU jumped on top first, taking a 1-0 lead in the first.
John Cassala roped a two-out double down the left field line and
Angel Camacho followed that with an RBI single to left.
The Owls answered to take a 4-1 lead in the second. A leadoff single and a hit batsman put the first two men on, before a sacrifice bunt moved both runners into scoring position. A single to center plated the first KSU run, before a squeeze bunt gave the Owls the lead. A two-out single to right scored two more before the inning ended with four runs on four hits.
Jacksonville immediately got one back in the third, when
Duncan Hunter led off with a double, went to third on
Ruben Someillan's sacrifice bunt and scored on
Dakota Julylia's RBI single to right to make it 4-2.
Kennesaw State built the lead back out to three again, when a one-out solo home run to right made it 5-2.
The Jacksonville pitching settled in after that, keeping the Owls off the board for the next four innings.
Tyler Santana battled his way through 4.2 innings, getting a 4-6-3 double play to erase a leadoff walk in the fifth, before giving way to
Kevin Faulkner (1-1), who threw a perfect 1.1 innings to collect his first collegiate win.
On the other side, the Jacksonville offense continued to find its stride, using the long ball to get back into it. A solo shot for
Duncan Hunter made it 5-3 in the fifth, then a big sixth inning gave the Dolphins a 6-5 lead.
Jacob Southern clubbed a solo home run to left and
Cory Heffron walked, setting up Hunter's second homer of the game, this time a two-run shot to center to put JU back in front for good. The Dolphins loaded the bases in the seventh, and Southern drew a bases loaded walk to push the lead to two, 7-5.
"Just keep pushing," said Hunter of the team's mentality throughout the comeback. "We knew there was a lot of baseball left to play."
After
Chris Mauloni struck out the side in the seventh, Kennesaw State threatened one last time in the eighth. A leadoff home run brought KSU within one, 7-6, and a walk brought
Trent Palmer in from the pen. The first batter pushed a bunt past everyone, moving the tying run into scoring position. Palmer then induced a strikeout on a failed bunt with two strikes before two traditional punchouts ended the inning and the threat.
JU added two more insurance runs in the ninth on Cassala's opposite field home run to extend the advantage to 9-6. The four homeruns were the most by the Dolphins in one game since May 1, 2015 at Northern Kentucky.
Zach Bryant struck out two in a perfect ninth to pick up his 11th save of the year.
Jacksonville goes for the series win tomorrow at 2 p.m.
