DELAND, Fla. – Jacksonville University baseball fell victim to a lopsided first inning to drop its regular season finale to Stetson on Saturday, 15-3, at Melching Field.
The Dolphins (11-31) allowed nine first-inning runs and were not able to dig out of the deficit.
After JU left a man in scoring position in the top of the first, Stetson brought 12 men to the plate against two different Dolphin pitchers, plating nine of them on just four hits, while taking advantage of three walks, two hit batsmen and a wild pitch.
The Hatters tacked on three more in the second, using a leadoff walk, three straight one-out singles and a bases clearing double to push the lead to 12-0.
Jacksonville got two back in the third, loading the bases to start the inning as
Ruben Someillan,
Dakota Julylia and
Christian Coipel walked in succession to end the night for Stetson's starter.
Mike Cassala lifted a sacrifice-fly to right to score one and
Cory Heffron grounded out to drive in another.
Stetson responded immediately to extend the lead to 15-3 and essentially squash any comeback hopes. Two-men got on in the bottom half to set the table for a three-run homer to right.
Both teams threw zeroes up, as JU got scoreless innings in relief from
Christian Graham,
Mike Cassala and
Jagger McCoy and added run in the eighth when Cassala was hit-by-a-pitch to start the inning and came around to score on
Jackson Grabsky's single to left.
ON DECK
Jacksonville starts the ASUN Baseball Championship next weekend on the road at Fort Myers with a three-game series at FGCU.
THREE STRIKES
- Cory Heffron extended his hit-streak to nine games and Ruben Someillan reached base for the 42nd consecutive game
- There were 12 pitchers used between the two teams in the game and they combined to walk 13 batters and hit four of them
- The 15 runs was a season-high allowed by JU this year
