JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Strong pitching and defense, along with timely hitting propelled Jacksonville University baseball to a 4-1 win over FGCU at John Sessions Stadium on Saturday night.
 
The Dolphins (21-18, 8-12) jumped out to an early lead and held the Eagles offense in check all evening to even the weekend series at one.
 
The night started with a leadoff single for FGCU, but the tone was set one pitch later, when Michael Darrell-Hicks induced a 5-4-3 double play to erase the leadoff baserunner. A strikeout ended the inning and JU quickly got on the board in the home half, with Christian Coipel launching his 11th home run of the season to make it 1-0.
 
The Eagles threatened in the second, with a one-out single followed by a walk to put two on. Darrell-Hicks bore down again, getting a pop up to short for an infield fly and then registering his second strikeout of the game to strand the two runners.
 
In the home half of the second, Jackson Grabsky laced a one-out single to left, then scored on a hit-and-run when Cam Ridley ripped a double down the third base line. Ridley took third on a wild pitch and scored on Chase Malloy's sacrifice fly to push the JU lead to 3-0.
 
FGCU managed just one baserunner over the next two innings, until putting together a little two-out rally in the fifth. A single to center was followed by a double to right that plated the one and only Eagle run off the evening. FGCU came back in the sixth and drew a pair of walks, but Darrell-Hicks got some help from his defense again at the end of his outing, with Blake DeLamielleure laying out in the right-center gap to steal a run-scoring hit from the Eagles and stranding a pair on.
 
In the bottom of the sixth, DeLamielleure and Tommy Joseph both singled to start the inning. Jesus Pacheco bunted them over and Jake Berg hit a groundball to short that scored DeLamielleure and the lead grew to three again, 4-1/
 
Bryce Fisher came out of the pen in the seventh and promptly struck out the side. He induced two groundouts and a popout in a 1-2-3 eighth and struck out the last two batters he faced in the ninth to earn his first career save in a Dolphin uniform.
 
ON DECK
 
Jacksonville tries to win its sixth home series of the year tomorrow, with first pitch against FGCU scheduled for 1 p.m.

COACH'S COMMENTS

 

THREE STRIKES
 

• Christian Coipel's first-inning home run was his 11th of the year, which is the most for a Dolphin since Austin Hays hit 16 in 2016
• FGCU's four hits was tied for the second-fewest they've had in a game this season and matched the fewest allowed by JU in a game this year (3x)
• Michael Darrell-Hicks matched his longest outing of the season, going six innings to earn the win