JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Cam Ridley scored the winning run on an error by the pitcher throwing to third and Jacksonville University baseball walked-off Stetson 5-4 on Saturday afternoon at John Sessions Stadium.
 
The Dolphins (18-15, 6-9) won for the second straight day and captured its second series win of conference play to close out the first half of the conference season.
 
JU scored first for the second straight game, plating a single run in the second. TJ Curd drew a two-out walk and scored from first when Ridley roped a double to left on a full count and gave the Dolphins the early 1-0 advantage.
 
That lead evaporated in the fourth. Christian Graham had worked around baserunners in the first and second innings, but after walking a Hatter with one out in the fourth, surrendered a two-run homer to right to give Stetson a 2-1 lead. After issuing another walk, he clamped down, getting a strikeout and a flyout to end the inning, and sitting down the Hatters in order in the fifth, his final inning of work.
 
JU threatened in the bottom of the fourth, with Jonah Diaz drawing a walk with one out and Jesus Pacheco following that up with a single, but the next two Dolphins got out on two pitches. It was the sixth where JU broke through again. They greeted the Stetson reliever with a leadoff single by Christian Coipel, who went to second on Diaz's one-out single. A third single in the inning loaded the bases, this time by Pacheco. With two outs, Curd grounded one to the right side that went off of the glove of the diving first baseman and plated two to put JU up 3-2.
 
Stetson answered right back, loading the bases with no outs in the top of the seventh on a walk, single and throwing error on a sacrifice bunt. Bryce Fisher entered the game, inducing a ground ball double play that tied the game at three, but then threw a wild pitch that allowed the runner at third to score to put the Hatters back on top, 4-3.
 
The back-and-forth nature of the late innings continued, with JU tying it again in the bottom of the seventh. Chase Malloy led off the inning with an infield single to short and advanced to second on Elias Flowers' sacrifice bunt. Blake DeLamielleure stepped up with two outs and smacked a single up the middle to score Malloy and knot the game at four.
 
After a 1-2-3 inning by Fisher, he gave way to Tyler Vogel in the ninth. The closer struck out the first batter before surrendering a bloop single to right. After two wild pitches during the ensuing at-bat, the go-ahead run was at third with one out. A walk put runners at the corners, and Stetson elected to try to squeeze in the runner at third. Vogel came off the mound and fielded the bunt, relaying to Berg who applied the tag for the second out. A groundball to second ended the inning and the threat, setting up the walkoff opportunity for JU.
 
Ridley led off the inning, and ripped his second double of the day down the third base line, leading to a Stetson pitching change. Malloy then laid down a sacrifice bunt, and the pitcher tried to throw out Ridley at third. His throw was errant, and Ridley quickly got to his feet and hustled home, giving the Dolphins a walkoff victory for the first time since 2020.
 
ON DECK
 
Jacksonville plays next on the road on Tuesday night at UCF. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m. at John Euliano Park.
 
COACH'S COMMENTS

 

THREE STRIKES
 

• Jacksonville won on a walkoff error for the first time since March 13, 2019, when the Dolphins beat FAMU 10-9 on an errant throw to the plate by the Rattler first baseman
• Blake DeLamiellure had multi-hit games in all three of the series, finishing the weekend 7-12 with a pair of RBI, a run scored and two stolen bases
• JU has now won the last two series over Stetson, and have 92 all-time wins against the Hatters