JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Four pitchers combined to shutout Stetson on Friday afternoon at John Sessions Stadium, leading Jacksonville University baseball to a 2-0 win.
The Dolphins (17-15, 5-9) stranded 11 Hatter batters on-base to even the weekend series at one game apiece.
For the Dolphins on the hill,
Michael Darrell-Hicks got the start and picked up his first win of the season, pitching five complete innings and striking out eight batters.
In the bottom of the first inning,
Chase Malloy led off the Dolphin half with a base hit to left and stole second base. A ground ball by
Jonah Diaz to shortstop advanced Malloy to third. After
Jesus Pacheco tried unsuccessfully to sacrifice bunt,
Christian Coipel walked to put runners at the corners for Blake DeLamiellure. An infield RBI hit for DeLamiellure gave JU an early 1-0 lead.
Later in the game, Stetson led off the top of the fourth with a hard hit ball to third going right under
Jackson Grabsky's glove to reach safely on an error. A passed ball advanced the runner to second, then a four-pitch walk put runners at first and second. Stetson got a sacrifice bunt down to move the runners up 90 feet with one away. The next batter was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Darrell-Hicks battled back and got out of the jam via back-to-back strikeouts.
After the strong five innings from Darrell-Hicks, the sidearmer
Leighton Alley came in to pitch the sixth inning and struck out two batters in his appearance. After allowing a leadoff single in the seventh, he gave way to
Jack Carver, who picked off the leadoff man at first, walked a man and surrendered a single before registering a backward K for the second out.
Blake Barquin replaced Carver, inheriting the two runners, who both swiped bases to move into scoring position, but the freshman registered a huge strikeout of his own to keep JU in front.
In the bottom of the eighth inning, Diaz walked with one away. An error on a pickoff attempt to first advanced him to second and Coipel delivered a two-out base hit into center scoring Diaz for his 33rd RBI on the season and gave the Dolphins a 2-0 lead.
Barquin came back out to throw the ninth inning and got some help from his defense, with Grabsky leaping to rob a leadoff pinch-hitter of extra bases. After a groundout to third, a two-out triple to right was the final runner of the day stranded without scoring, as Barquin induced a game-ending groundout to short to seal the shutout victory and to lock down his first save of the year.
ON DECK
The Dolphins try to take the series on Saturday afternoon at John Sessions Stadium with game three scheduled to begin at 1:00 p.m.
COACH'S COMMENTS
THREE STRIKES
- Jacksonville secured its first shutout victory since an 8-0 win at Southeastern Louisiana on Feb. 23, 2020
- With the win, Head Coach Chris Hayes became the fifth coach in JU history to reach the 150-win milestone
- Michael Darrell-Hicks matched his career-high with eight strikeouts
