University of North Florida
Florida Southern College
'Battle of Florida' Goes South:
UNF falls short in bid for title
6/4/2005 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
June 4, 2005
Box Score | Photo Gallery l Notebook l CWS Home Page
MONTGOMERY, Ala. - The University of North Florida baseball team saw its dream of Division II national championship in its final season before making the jump to Division I come to an end on Saturday afternoon at Riverwalk Stadium. The Ospreys surrendered 20 hits to Florida Southern in a 12-9 loss in the NCAA Division II National Baseball Championship title game.
The 20 hits surrendered was a season high for the Ospreys (48-16). Florida Southern (51-11) rode those hits to its record ninth NCAA Division II title and its first since 1995.
UNF broke out of the gates to a 3-0 lead and eventually took an 8-3 advantage before Florida Southern came storming back to score nine of the game's next 10 runs. FSC finally pushed the eventual game winner across in the seventh on a Nick Diyorio single that plated Alexy Hernandez.
"I'm just heartbroken for my team," UNF head coach Dusty Rhodes said. "We're a good enough team to win this, but you have to credit Florida Southern. They played an outstanding game. We just couldn't get those guys out today. It was just one of those days for us. We lost to a great Florida Southern team, but UNF is a great team, too. This is a great team. It's the greatest team I have had at UNF."
UNF placed third baseman Jon Skorupski, outfielder Josh Howard, designated hitter Sadry Café and pitcher Josh Papelbon on the 2005 Division II National Championship All-Tournament Team.
The Ospreys managed 12 hits, led by UNF seniors Howard and Marion Knowles. Howard finished the game 3-for-5 with two runs scored and an RBI, while Knowles drove in five runs on two hits, including a first-inning home run.
Skorupski finished the day 2-for-3 with an RBI and two runs scored. He also reached base twice after being hit by a pitch. UNF shortstop Matt Oxendine was 2-for-5 with a run scored in the loss.
"We hit the ball pretty well," Knowles said. "In baseball sometimes you hit the ball hard, but it just doesn't fall. Today we had some fall that hadn't been falling this series, but it just wasn't enough."
UNF right-hander Ryan Amason suffered the loss for UNF to drop to 7-3 on the season. The Osprey hurler tossed 4.2 innings in relief, allowing five earned runs on eight hits, while striking out five.
The Ospreys didn't waste any time in getting on the board. With two outs in the bottom of the first inning and runners on first and second base Knowles belted a home run over the left-center field wall that cleared the iron fence surrounding the stadium to give UNF a 3-0 lead.
The home run, which was Knowles 18th of the season, was just the second hit of the World Series for the UNF first baseman.
The Mocs evened things up in the top of the second with three runs of their own. Florida Southern opened the inning with a pair of singles to right field from first baseman Fred Popp and catcher Jeff Howell. After striking out Matt Mercurio, Dixon issued a walk to Paul Ryan to load the bases for Hernandez. Hernandez made the opportunity count with a sacrifice fly to center field to score Popp and advance Howell to third base. The Mocs' No. 9 hitter, Adam Calderone, delivered the big blow of the inning with a triple over Howard's head that plated two runs to knot the game 3-3. UNF starter Jacob Dixon induced a fly ball out to left field from Diyorio to escape the inning with no more damage.
Calderone's triple was the first extra base hit Dixon had surrendered in 31.1 innings of postseason work.
The Ospreys recaptured the lead in the bottom half of the second with a five-run outpouring. UNF used a pair of doubles from Howard and Café, along with a single from Knowles, to power the offensive charge. Howard's double scored Oxendine to put UNF on top 4-3. Oxendine recorded his first hit of the World Series, a leadoff single through the left side of the infield, to reach base. Café's double plated Grogan, who reached base after being hit by a pitch, and Howard to extend the Ospreys' lead 6-3. On the next at bat, Knowles picked up his fourth and fifth RBIs of the day when he slapped a single down the right-field line to put UNF ahead by a count of 8-3.
Florida Southern scratched out three more runs in the top of the third when Mercurio doubled to left-center field to plate Howell and Geoff Strickland and later came around to score on a Ryan single to left field slicing the UNF lead to 8-6.
After holding the Ospreys scoreless in the third and fourth innings, the Mocs threatened in their half of the fifth inning, chasing Dixon from the game after four innings. For Dixon, the four-inning outing was his shortest outing since March 13 when the UNF hurler pitched three innings against Kennesaw State. The right-hander allowed six runs, all earned, on 10 hits and a walk, recording one strikeout. Dixon was touched for a pair of singles to open the fifth inning before giving way to Amason.
"I just didn't have it today," Dixon said. "It wasn't real lucky that today was the day I was off, but that's baseball. I knew it was going to be a battle and it just came down to me not having enough to get them out."
The Mocs battled back to take the lead in the top of the sixth inning by pushing three runs across the plate on a pair of singles by Diyorio and Popp and a pair of doubles by Strickland and Howell to go ahead 9-8.
The Ospreys added a run in the bottom of the sixth inning to tie the score at nine runs apiece. Howard doubled down the left-field line to start a UNF rally and came around to score on a Skorupski single.
The Mocs took the run back in the top of the seventh on the strength of a Hernandez triple to left-center field. Hernandez scored on a two-out single by Diyorio to give the Mocs a 10-9 lead.
Florida Southern extended its lead to three runs in the top of the ninth inning to secure the 12-9 win.
The 21-run outpouring by the two squads is the third-highest scoring title game in Division II history.
"Our guys never quit," Rhodes said. "They battled all the way to the end. This is a great team and I'm devastated for them, but they proved how good they were all season and by getting into this game. It was a game that we could have won, but losing it to a good Florida Southern team doesn't change how good this team is."
The Ospreys will join the Atlantic Sun Conference beginning in the fall of 2005.
"We're taking the greatest UNF baseball team to Division I," Rhodes said.
