Saturday, January 31, 2004
Seven Run Sixth Leads UNF to Win over Presbyterian
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. –
After playing Presbyterian College to a stalemate through
almost six complete innings, the University of North Florida
baseball team exploded for seven runs in the bottom of the
sixth inning before tacking on one more run in an 8-0 win
Saturday.
The win moved UNF to 1-0 on the season and was the team’s
sixth opening-day win in a row. Presbyterian fell to 0-1.
While UNF’s lineup was struggling against Blue Hose starter Travis
Hill (Rock Hill, SC), Ryan Amason (1-0) was shutting the
Presbyterian offense down, allowing only one hit in six
innings of work. The UNF trio of Amason, Jared Incinelli
and Billy Layman surrendered only two hits on the
afternoon, to go along with three walks and seven strikeouts.
Amason had five of those strikeouts, three of which were
looking.
Joseph Russell put UNF on the board to stay in the bottom of
the sixth inning, driving home Jeff Millsaps, who
reached with a two-out single. Rightfielder Sadry Café
followed Russell with a double and before the inning was
through five more Ospreys would come to the plate to give UNF
a 7-0 advantage. Catcher Judd Loveland provided the
biggest blow of the inning, driving home three runs with a
bases loaded triple to right.
Ryan Knight drove home a run in the sixth inning,
before knocking in another run with an RBI single in the
bottom of the eighth. He finished the day 2-for-5 at the plate
with two RBIs. Russell finished the day 2-for-3 for UNF, while
Millsaps was 2-for-4 with a run.
On the mound, Amason gave up a base hit to Philip Hauserman
(Decatur, GA),
the second batter he saw on the day. Hauserman was erased when
Loveland caught him stealing at second and Amason cruised from
there. The right handed sophomore retired 15 of the next 16
batters he saw, only giving up a walk to Evan Sowell (Chesterfield,
SC) in
the third inning.
Presbyterian’s only offensive threat came in the seventh
inning when Incinelli walked Kevin White (Spartanburg,
SC) before
surrendering a two-out base hit to Lance Howard (Simpsonville,
SC). Incinelli
pitched his way out of that by striking out Kip McAlister
(Richburg, SC)to end the threat.
Presbyterian did put a man on second when Layman gave up a
walk to Hauserman in the ninth. Hauserman moved to second on a
fielder’s choice, but was stranded there when the Ospreys
ended the game on a double play.
UNF and Presbyterian will square off Sunday at 1 p.m. in the
final game of the two-game set. The game can be heard live on
the web at www.unf.edu/sports