April 30, 2005
Box Score (Gm 1)
Box Score (Gm 2)
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - The University of North Florida baseball team needed two wins in its three-game series with Augusta State this weekend to claim a third consecutive Peach Belt Conference championship.
With storm clouds approaching and rain in the forecast for the remainder of the weekend, the third- ranked Ospreys left nothing to chance on Saturday afternoon at Harmon Stadium.
UNF (38-11, 22-7 PBC) pounded out 12 hits in the first game of a doubleheader against the Jaguars (28- 24-1, 12-16-1 PBC) for a 10-2 victory, then rallied from behind with five runs in their last two at-bats in game two en route to a 7-3 win. The afternoon sweep secured the Ospreys of their sixth conference title in eight years and slammed the door on any chance of a Peach Belt foe catching them in the standings this year - their final season of membership.
UNF joins the Division I Atlantic Sun Conference in the fall.
"It is good to get one more before we go," UNF head coach Dusty Rhodes said. "This was our last time through, so we wanted to end it the right way. This has been a fantastic league for us to be a part of, and I hope that we have helped make it better."
The win in game two, which clinched the outright title, didn't come easy for UNF.
The Ospreys trailed 2-0 after an RBI-single by Augusta State's Sam Barth in the first inning and a sacrifice fly by Garrick McGrath in the second. Marion Knowles' two-run home run in the bottom of the second erased that deficit, but the Jaguars broke back on top in the fifth on another run-scoring single by Barth.
The UNF bats took their cue from there, rallying to tie the game on Judd Loveland's RBI-double in the fifth. The Ospreys then put the game away in the sixth, taking the lead for good on Sadry Café's double, which scored Matt Oxendine. Loveland followed with another RBI-double to push the Ospreys up 5-3. A wild pitch and an interference play plated UNF's final two runs.
Josh Papelbon (6-1) earned the win, allowing one hit in two scoreless innings of relief. Loveland was 2-for- 3 with two RBIs, while Café was 2-for-3 with two runs scored. Barth was 2-for-4 with two RBIs for the Jaguars.
In game one, the Ospreys took an early 4-0 lead and used a six-run eighth to put the game away. That proved to be plenty of support for UNF starter Ryan Amason, who was masterful all afternoon. The junior pitched eight shutout innings, allowing only five hits while striking out four and walking none.
Café put UNF on top 1-0 with a solo home run in the second. A Jonathan Hodach RBI-double and sacrifice flies by Mike Fryear and Kevin Johnson pushed the margin to 4-0 heading to the eighth against Augusta State starter Max Fischer.
The first three batters singled against Fischer in the eighth - Brennan Grogan, Oxendine and Jon Skorupski - ending his afternoon and setting up the six-run explosion against a pair of relievers. Josh Howard's two-run triple was the big blow in the inning, pushing the UNF lead to 9-0.
Augusta State scored both of its runs in the ninth off reliever Jared Incinelli.
Howard was 2-for-4 with two runs scored in the game for the Ospreys, while Johnson was 2-for-2 with two RBIs. Fischer (5-5) suffered the loss for ASU, allowing eight hits and seven earned runs.
The teams will conclude their three-game series on Sunday with a single game at 1 p.m. at Harmon Stadium. That game will be webcast at www.unfospreys.com.
"I am proud of our guys," Rhodes said. "They played well and have done a great job coming back to win this conference after starting 0-3. Our pitching has really come around, and we have done what we needed to do. It all worked out pretty good."
