JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Jacksonville University baseball responded to an early deficit swiftly and decisively, rolling to a 12-4 win over North Florida on Sunday afternoon at Harmon Stadium.
 
The Dolphins (16-13, 4-8) used a three-run fourth to take a lead that it would not relinquish, capturing the final game of the River City Rumble series.
 
North Florida scored first for the second time in three days, plating a run the second. A leadoff walk advanced to second on a passed ball, third on a flyout and scored on a sacrifice fly, making it 1-0 UNF.
 
JU quickly answered. Tommy Joseph singled through short for the Dolphins first hit of the game, and Cam Ridley followed drawing a walk. Elias Flowers hit a bouncer to first that was mishandled initially by the first baseman, and Flowers dove headfirst into the bag to beat it out, the error loading the bases. Chase Malloy hit a single that snuck through the right side and scored two, and Jesus Pacheco laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt to plate another, giving JU the 3-1 lead.
 
The Dolphins got off to another good start in the fourth. Trace Burchard singled to left and Blake DeLamielleure followed with an opposite field base knock, with Burchard going first to third. Joseph lifted a sacrifice fly to left field to make it 4-1 JU after four.
 
Christian Graham gave up the run in the second, but settled in after that. He retired the Ospreys in order in the third, and got some help from his catcher Burchard in the fourth, as he threw a man out at second, with Graham using that help to face the minimum. In the fifth, a one-out walk was erased on a 6-4-3 double play to end the frame. Graham again worked around a leadoff walk in the sixth, picking up a strikeout, groundout and flyout to work a career-best six innings, allowing only the one run on one hit.
 
JU separated in the sixth. Burchard again led off the inning with a single, this time to right field. DeLamielleure followed by drawing a walk. Jonah Diaz hit a grounder to short, and the Ospreys first baseman tried to get DeLamielleure at second, but hit him with the throw and the everyone was safe on the error to load the bases. Joseph hit his second sacrifice fly of the day to add another run, and Ridley stepped up and roped his first homer of the season over the wall in left, a three-run shot to give JU an 8-1 advantage.
 
The Dolphins were not done yet, scoring three more in the seventh. Christian Coipel hit a solo shot to right field, and after DeLamielleure drew his second walk of the day, Diaz greeted the new Osprey pitcher with a run-scoring triple into the rightfield corner. Joseph collected his third RBI of the day with a single to center and JU led 11-1 at the seventh-inning stretch.
 
UNF got one in the seventh and two in the eighth to trim into the deficit some, but JU got one more in the ninth. Diaz was hit by a pitch with one out, and after taking second on a wild pitch, was lifted for pinch-runner Jackson Grabsky. Grabsky advanced to third on a groundout to the right side, and scored on another wild pitch.
 
Tyler Vogel got the final three outs in the night to finish it off.
 
ON DECK
 
Jacksonville returns home to host UCF on Tuesday night at 7 p.m. at John Sessions Stadium.
 
THREE STRIKES
 

• Cam Ridley's three-run homer in the sixth was the second of his career and the first in a Dolphin uniform
• Jonah Diaz hit his first career triple, the second of the season for a Dolphin
• Clayton Hodges pinch-hit in the eighth, and picked up his first hit, a single to center. He followed it up with another single in the ninth, his first career multi-hit game