JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - The Jacksonville Dolphins traveled across town to Harmon Stadium Friday to compete against the University of North Florida (22-22) in the semifinal game of the ASUN Conference Baseball Championship. JU (15-32) staged a comeback in the late innings to tie the game after trailing 4-0 and send the contest into extras , eventually taking the victory by a final 8-5 to advance to Saturday's championship game. 

The Ospreys took control of the game early as Abraham Sequera slammed a two-run home run over the fence to give North Florida a quick 2-0 lead. JU remained silent on offense, as North Florida was able to retire the Dolphins in order in for four consecutive innings. 

Elias Flowers collected the Dolphins' first hit of the day in the top of the fifth, but was erased shortly after by a UNF double play.

The Ospreys added two more runs in the top of the fifth. Justin Holmes led off the frame with a hit by pitch before stealing second and advancing to third on a throwing miscue on the steal attempt. A sacrifice fly by Tanner Clark made it 3-0 before Sequera closed out the inning by hitting his second home run of the game to extend the Osprey lead to 4-0. 

In the top of the seventh, Christian Copiel led the inning off with an infield single down the third base line against the shift before Mike Cassala singled through the left side to put two men on with no outs. After a flyout to center, Duncan Hunter stepped up to the plate and hammered a three-run home run to cut the Ospreys lead to one at 4-3. Jackson Grabsky singled with two away in the inning but was stranded after a groundout ended the inning.

"It is great to see him (Duncan Hunter) deliver in that spot," head coach Chris Hayes said. "The resiliency, determination and adversity Hunter has gone through really allowed him to do well in that situation." 

After preventing North Florida from scoring, the Dolphins continued to do damage in the eighth. Ruben Someillan began the inning with a leadoff single and eventually made it to second on a sacrifice bunt from Dakota Julylia. A Coipel groundout to first advanced Someillan to third, where a wild pitch on ball four to Cassala allowed Someillan to scamped home and tie the game at 4-4.

With neither team able to plate the go-ahead run in the scheduled distance, extra innings would be needed to determine the outcome between the crosstown rivals.

Despite both teams getting runners aboard in the 10th, neither could find the key hit to bring in that winning run to advance to Saturday afternoon.

Hunter continued his strong day at the plate, starting off the 11th with a single. Flowers followed with a double to put two runners in scoring position. Grabsky then delivered one of the biggest at bats of his young JU career, lining a single to center with the infield in to plate both runners before advancing to second in a run down on the throw back in. The bats remained loud as Jesus Pacheco singled to advance Grabsky to third and brought about a call to the bullpen by the Ospreys.

Someillan greeted the new arm out of the pen with an RBI fielder's choice to score Grabsky and make it a 7-4 game. After a Julylia single, Coipel singled back up the middle to plate Someillan and make it 8-4 before Julylia was tagged out in between second and third to end the inning.

The Ospreys plated a run on a two-out RBI single in the bottom of the inning to make it 8-5, but were unable to sustain the rally as popup to Pacheco ended the game.

Jagger McCoy (3-3) turned in a massive performance on the mound and picked up the win in relief of starter Mike Cassala, working a season-high five innings out of the bullpen and allowing just one run on four hits while striking out five. Cassala worked six solid innings, striking out four while allowing four runs on five hits. 

Flowers and Pacheco led the way with 3-5 efforts at the plate as six Dolphins finished the day with multi-hit efforts. Someillan extended his on base streak to 47 games this season as JU has now won at least two ASUN Tournament games in each season since Chris Hayes has been head coach.

ON DECK 

The Dolphins will return to Harmon Stadium to play in the ASUN Conference championship game tomorrow against the winner of the North Florida vs. Liberty contest. Tomorrow's game is set to take place at 1:00 p.m. and will be broadcast on ESPN+. 

COACH'S COMMENTS

On the team being in the position to get a bid to the NCAA Tournament:  

"Right now I look at it as having one more day of baseball tomorrow and we know we have our work cut out for us tomorrow against two great potential opponents," Hayes said. "I am excited to get to play tomorrow for the championship."