Box Score

 

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (March 2, 2005) - University of North Florida pitcher Ryan Amason threw a one-hit shutout to help lead the Ospreys to a 2-0 win against Western Michigan in Kennel Club Classic action on Wednesday night at Harmon Stadium.

Amason (1-0) struck out 13 Broncos in the victory, getting all the offense he needed when UNF plated two runs in the bottom of the sixth.

"I wanted to send a message to these Division I guys, who we're going to be playing next year," Amason said. "I wanted to show them we can play at this level. I just got in a groove. Everything was working for me, which makes it easy."

Amason faced only 29 batters on the night, walking two and giving up a wild pitch. He and Western Michigan's Mark Rasmussen (1-1) locked horn in a pitcher's duel, giving up only five hits between them and combed to strike out 15.

Brennan Grogan led the Ospreys at the plate with a 2-for-4 performance, while Matt Oxendine, Jon Skorupski and Marion Knowles each collected a hit.

"We needed to get that performance from Amason because we weren't swinging the bat real well," UNF head coach Dusty Rhodes said. "He just made a mistake on one pitch. I think they only hit two balls hard all night."

UNF threatened to score in the bottom of the fifth inning when Knowles led off the frame with a walk and moved up to second on a sacrifice bunt. Knowles, however, failed to run when Kevin Johnson reached on an error by Broncos second baseman Matt Bolton. Knowles did reach third on the play, but failed to score when James Belyea struck out and Mike Fryrear flied out to end the inning.

Oxendine reached an inning later with UNF's first base hit since Grogan led off the bottom of the first with a bunt single. Oxendine then stole second and scored on a Skorupski double to left. Skorupski scored two batters later on a Knowles double to right-center.

Amason finally gave up a hit in the top of the eighth inning when Andy Roy singled to right. Sadry Café prevented a run on the play when he cut down Kyle Manus at the plate. Manus led off the inning with a walk and reached second on a wild pitch.

The Ospreys improved to 9-6 with the win, while Western Michigan fell to 1-4.

UNF and the Broncos will complete the second game of a doubleheader on Thursday night at 7 p.m.