JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Jacksonville Baseball (3-3) fell short in Sunday's rubber match against the Delaware Blue Hens, 2-1.
For Jacksonville, Richard Long (0-1) got his second start of the season and was able to work 5.2 innings. Long recorded six strikeouts, only gave up one hit, and surrendered three walks. Long surrendered two runs and took the loss.
"I'm really proud of the outing Richard Long gave us," said head coach Chris Hayes. "He kept a really good Delaware lineup in check."
Following a one, two, three top of the first, the Dolphins grabbed the bats for the first time in the bottom half. Will Gale led things off with a base hit into right field, which was followed up by a Blake Edmonds walk. Two men were on early for the heart of the order. A double steal put the runners even closer, up to second and third. Josh Steidl broke the tie with an RBI single to give Jacksonville an early 1-0 lead.
Long ran into some trouble in the third as he walked two batters early on. The Blue Hens took advantage with a two-run double into the left-center field gap, which gave Delaware the 2-1 advantage.
After the Dolphins failed to answer in the bottom of the third, they moved to the fourth. Long bounced back after the third inning with a three-up, three-down fourth  However, Delaware's pitching followed suit in the home half as it held its 2-1 lead.
The left-handed senior, Jack Carver, relieved Long with two away in the top of the sixth. The senior got the first batter he faced to ground out to shortstop to end the inning. Still facing a 2-1 deficit, the Dolphins had a two-out rally going in the sixth after Josh Steidl reached on a base hit through the left side. Clayton Hodges wore a pitch to get on first base. On a 3-0 count to Abdriel Delgado, the Blue Hens made a move to the bullpen and brought in a lefty. His first pitch was low and outside ball four to Delgado to load the bases for Tanner Zellem, trying to give Jacksonville the lead. The Blue Hens didn't back down and punched out Tanner to strand the bases loaded and hold on to the 2-1 lead.
Carver ran into some two-out trouble in the seventh, as a walk and a base hit had two Blue Hens on in a one-run game. Coach Hayes called upon Scout Updike to take relief for Carver, and Updike wasted no time ending the threat with a strikeout to keep JU's deficit at one.
Carver finished with one complete inning, he gave up just one hit and one walk in the seventh.
Nick Delisi led off the home half of the seventh with a four-pitch walk and Justin Nadeau was called upon to pinch run. A sacrifice bunt off the bat of Cade Hentz was executed perfectly as Nadeau moved up to second with one away for the top of the order. Nadeau followed that up by swiping third to put the tying run 90 feet away, but once again, the Blue Hens pitching shut it down to end the inning.
Updike finished with 1.1 innings pitched, he gave up zero runs on no hits and recorded one strikeout. Chris Lotito came out to pitch the ninth inning trying to give his offense one last chance down by one run. Lotito did just that after recording a three-up, three-down inning.
"Overall, as a pitching staff, I thought we had a tremendous effort," said Hayes on his team's pitching efforts. "Jack Carver, Scout Updike, and Chris Lotito only giving up two hits and two runs all day. If we can get a performance like that out of that group, we feel really good about our chances going forward."
Unfortunately for the Dolphins, Delaware returned the favor with a three-up, three-down inning of their own to close out the game.
"Offensively we have to do more," further added Hayes postgame. "We had opportunities to drive runs in, and we didn't cash in. Credit to the Delaware pitching staff, they made it difficult on us today. We need to continue to make adjustments and compete at the plate, but overall, I am proud of how clean we played, we pitched well and played good on defense. I am proud of how the team responded after game two and we came out today and competed really well. Delaware played very well, it was a competitive game and series against a very well-coached team. Overall, this is a good step for us in getting ready for conference play."
Three Strikes:
- Will Gale continues his hitting streak to begin the season; now up to six games.
- Richard Long pitched 5.2 strong innings despite taking the loss.
- The Dolphins' bullpen didn't give up any runs through 3.1 innings.
On Deck:
The Jacksonville Dolphins are back in action on Wednesday as they take on the Georgia Southern Eagles at John Sessions Stadium. First pitch is scheduled for 6:00 p.m.
