“That was a good, solid win for us coming off a long weekend with two extra-inning ball games,” said Head Coach Tim Montez. “Our freshmen weren’t freshmen tonight. All three of them did a good, solid job of attacking the zone and mixing pitches. They grew up tonight and that’s exactly what we need.”
Julylia jumped on a 2-0 pitch from Wildcat reliever Clint Clymer (0-1) and drove home JJ Gould from second base on a line drive to centerfield. Mike Cassala (1-1) then set down the Wildcats (4-7) in order in the bottom of the inning and finished the game on an emphatic note with a strikeout-looking of three-hole hitter Michael Cruz.
Jacksonville (7-3) opened the scoring with a run in the first inning thanks to Austin Hays’ triple and a Nathan Koslowski RBI groundout. Hays would finished the game 3-5.
The Dolphins scored again an inning later on a two-out single by Cassala, who started the game at catcher, to right field.
B-CU took the lead with three runs in the fifth inning and ended the day for starter Ryan Granda. The freshman finished with two runs off three hits in four innings. He did not walk a batter and registered three strikeouts. His reliever, Mike Schappell, allowed one run in the inning but was dynamite until he left with two outs in the ninth. Schappell would strike out eight batters over 4.2 innings, the best outing of his early career, and allowed just the one run on one hit. He also walked four batters.
Jacksonville tied the game in the eighth inning off a Seth DeWitt single, one of 13 hits on the day for JU. Amongst the 13 hits were two by Parker Perez, who has hit safely in all 10 games.
B-CU starter Juan Pizarro scattered seven hits over six innings and gave up two runs.
“It was one of those games that could have easily gotten away from us mentally but the leadership on this team is good,” said Montez. “We’ve got to do a better job of turning 13 hits into more than four runs, but we faced a good Bethune-Cookman team with quality arms.”
Jacksonville returns to action Wednesday, Mar. 9 with a 6:00 p.m. first pitch against USF at Sessions Stadium.