The A-SUN Conference Baseball Tournament was initially suppose to start at 11 A.M., but after a very strong rain delay, the tournament went underway at 1:15 P.M.
The first game was No. 1 Jacksonville against No. 6 Lipscomb. JU was ahead of Lipscomb 3-2 going into the fifth inning, but once again, the rain came down hard. After a six and a half hour delay, the game resumed at 7 pm. JU would end up winning the game 8-2 and send Lipscomb to the losers bracket.
"Matt Meyer coming in with a runner on first and the top of the lineup, battling through those top three hitters for Lipscomb was a huge lift for us," said JU Head Coach Chris Hayes. "The way the A-SUN handled this delay was commendable. You never really expect a game to start at 11 a.m. and end at 8 p.m., but I was really proud of the way the guys came out and competed from the first pitch at 11, and then at the restart at 7 p.m."
“This was such an odd game,” Lipscomb head coach Jeff Forehand said. “We got some good pitching from Jeffrey Passantino to begin the game, but unfortunately for us the weather forced us to make a change."
“Late in the game we made some good defensive plays to keep the game close, but we just could never find a way to push some runs across, even with the bases loaded. Give Jacksonville credit, they did a good job of limiting our threat.”
The FGCU and UNF was suppose to start at 3 pm, but because of the rain, they started at 9 P.M.
On the mound for FGCU was junior A-SUN First Team All-Conference member Kutter Crawford (6-1, 1.76 ERA). Crawford would face A-SUN All-Freshman Team member Cooper Bradford (1-3, 2.57 ERA).
At the top of first inning, Crawford started off strong with a strikeout to senior A-SUN Second Team All-Conference member Patrick Ervin. After giving up a triple to junior A-SUN All-Conference First Team member, Yahir Gurrola, Crawford was able to get senior A-SUN All-Conference Second Team member Chris Thibideau, and senior A-SUN All-Conference First Team member Alex Merritt to groundout to end the top of the inning.
At the top of the second, Crawford got into a bases loaded situation. After striking out the first batter, Crawford gave up a single and a walk before striking out the second batter. Then after walking the next batter to load the bases, Crawford got Ervin to groundout to end the inning.
FGCU's bats would soon wake up in the bottom of the second. After junior Eli Lovell struck out, A-SUN All-Freshman Team member and A-SUN Freshman of the Year Richie Garcia started with a single and advanced to second after a failed pickoff attempt. Junior Matt Reardon would hit a single to advance Garcia to third while fellow A-SUN All-Freshman Team member, Marc Coffers, would drive in Garcia on a single for the first run before sophomore Jake Smith grounded out into a double play to end the inning.
By the third inning, FGCU would strike again as junior Spencer Levine would lead off with a single. After junior A-SUN First Team All-Conference member Julio Gonzalez, walked, redshirt junior Gage Morey hit a bunt single to load the bases. It left a big scoring opportunity for A-SUN First Team All-Conference member and the A-SUN Player of the Year Nick Rivera. Rivera, however, would hit an infield fly for the first out. After Lovell struck out, Garcia would bring in the second run of the game with a bases loaded walk to drive in Levine and increased the lead to 2-0.
Bradford would exit the game and senior A-SUN All-Academic Team member, Tyler Dupont (1-0, 3.50 ERA), would come in to finish the rest of the inning and strike out Reardon to end the third.
In the bottom of the fourth, Coffers would have his time to shine. The freshman hit a leadoff solo home run to left to increase the score to 3-0. The home run was Coffer's fifth of the year. After Smith and Levine hit back-to-back singles, Gonzalez would walk again to load the bases for Morey. Morey would pop out for the first out.
UNF would once again change pitchers and head coach Smoke Laval would bring in redshirt senior Austin Howze. Howze (3-3, 3.57 ERA) would get Rivera to ground into a double play to end the inning.
The fifth and sixth inning were quiet for the moment, but the Eagles would strike again. Coffers lead off with a single and steal second. After Smith flew out and moved Coffers from second to third, Levine struck out and then Coffers would score the fourth and final run on a wild pitch.
In the ninth inning, redshirt junior Kenton Hering (6-3, 2.28 ERA) would enter in for Crawford in a non-save situation. Hering would strikeout Thibideau and have Merritt lineout. After walking the third batter, Hering would get redshirt senior Christian Diaz to strike out and end the inning.
"That first one is always a big one," said head coach Dave Tollett. "But so are all the others when you get to this point in the season. Kutter was phenomenal on the mound tonight. It took him a couple innings to settle in, but he was almost unhittable once he did. Our offense continued to swing the bats well with 10 more hits, but we even left some runs out there by missing out on some scoring opportunities. It feels good to start out the week with a win. We're just taking this thing one game at a time."
Crawford would be credited with his seventh win after throwing eight scoreless innings, giving up three hits, walk two batters and strike out 10. Hering threw one scoreless inning and walked one batter and strike out two. Hering threw one scoreless inning, walked one batter and strike out two.
Coffers was 3-for-3 with two singles, one home run, two RBIs and two runs scored, Levine and Reardon had two hits each and Garcia was 1-for-3 with a single, one RBI, a walk and one run scored. Rivera went 0-for-4 with a strikeout.
UNF will play conference and intercity rival JU at 4:30 pm in the losers bracket.
Due to the long weather delay, the game between No. 5 Kennesaw and tournament host and defending champions No. 2 Stetson was rescheduled on Thursday morning. I found out that day that Kennesaw won against Stetson 10-5. Stetson would end up in the losers bracket and face Lipscomb at 1 pm.
"We gave up a lot of runs today with two outs, and that is really out of character for this team," Stetson head coach Trimper said. "We didn't play within our character. This team has been so strong on the mound, especially with two outs, bulldogging it out. We didn't lose our fight, the guys continued to grind, we just didn't execute baseball plays and baseball pitches like we have been.
"There were just so many things that were uncharacteristic of us and it goes to show you that no one in life is perfect. We have to always learn from our mistakes, and this is a microcosm of that. We have some unbelievable talent on this team and I am so proud of them, but we just didn't execute today when it was important."
FGCU will play Kennesaw at 7:45 pm on Thursday night.
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