JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Jacksonville University baseball used an opportunistic first inning and strong pitching for the second night in a row to beat Wofford 8-1 to clinch a series win on Saturday night at John Sessions Stadium.
 
The Dolphins (2-8) scored five in the bottom of the first and never looked back en route to a second straight win over the Terriers.
 
"Resilient effort by everybody on the squad today," said Head Coach Chris Hayes. "They saw an opportunity to win a series and they went out and took it."
 
Ruben Someillan hit a single to center to lead off the bottom of the first, JU's biggest inning of the night. Cory Heffon was hit by a pitch and Tommy Joseph picked up an infield single to load the bases for Duncan Hunter, who was hit by a pitch to drive in the first run of the night. A wild pitch scored Heffron and Dakota Julylia plated another run on an RBI groundout. Trace Burchard drove in a fourth run and came into score after Jackson Grabsky doubled to right and the Wofford second baseman committed an error to make it 5-0 after one.
 
Mike Cassala (1-1) used the run support to help fuel his strong outing on the mound. He finished the night allowing just one run on three hits, with seven strikeouts in 5.2 innings. He finished the night with his final strikeout of the game, his fifth looking.
 
The Dolphins tacked on an additional run in the fourth when Grabsky singled to lead off the inning for his second hit of the night. Jesus Pacheco bunted him over and he went to third on Someillan's groundout, then scoring on a wild pitch to make it 6-0.
 
Wofford got on the board in the sixth, when their first batter to the plate in the inning singled, stole second, and scored when the first batter faced by Tyler Naumann singled to left.
 
JU finished the scoring with a two run eighth. Heffron walked to start the inning and stole second. Hunter then walked and Julylia grounded out to advance both runners and Christian Coipel drove in both with a two-out, two RBI single to rightfield to make it 8-1.
 
Naumann did not allow anyone other than the inherited runner to score in his 2.1 innings of relief, and Adrian Garrastazu pitched a scoreless ninth to finish it out.
 
ON DECK
 
Jacksonville goes for the series sweep vs. Wofford on Sunday at John Sessions Stadium. First pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m.

COACH'S COMMENTS

 

THREE STRIKES
 

• Freshman Jackson Grabsky became the first Dolphin to record a four hit game this season, going 4-4 with a pair of doubles
• Freshman Trace Burchard recorded his first college RBI in the first inning
• Jacksonville has scored 16 runs the last two games, both wins, after managing just 19 runs through the first eight games of the season