JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The North Florida baseball team (2-1) will be home on Tuesday night to host Savannah State before heading down to Orlando to take on UCF on Wednesday evening. Tuesday night's game is the season's first dollar beer night with first pitch scheduled for 6:00 p.m. at Harmon Stadium.
  
Pitching Matchup
Tuesday
UNF: RHP Zach Drury (1-0, 8.49 ERA, 11.2 IP, 9 BB, 9 SO) 
SSU: RHP Justin Washington (0-0, 0.00 ERA, 1.0 IP, 0 BB, 1 SO)

Wednesday
UNF: TBA
UCF: TBA

Out of the Box
Opening Weekend: The Ospreys took two-out-of-three against George Washington University this past weekend at Harmon Stadium. North Florida clinched the series on Sunday with a 10-7, comeback victory. It marked the first time in school history the Ospreys and Colonials met and second-straight year the Ospreys have played a school out of the Atlantic 10 (2015-St. Louis).
Pitcher of the Week: Junior Bryan Baker was rewarded for his standout performance on the mound Saturday by being named Atlantic Sun Conference Pitcher of the Week. He threw six shutout innings, allowed only two hits and struck out five to earn the victory. The combined shutout was the first of his career.

Reliable Pen: The Ospreys did not allow a run in the last three innings of all three games against George Washington. Junior Matthew Naylor headed a number of lockdown relief appearances for North Florida bullpen. Naylor preserved the shutout on Saturday with three scoreless innings and five strikeouts. He earned his first career save in the victory. On Sunday Austin Drury tossed two innings of shutout relief and earned his first collegiate victory in the process.

Save Leader: Senior Corbin Olmstead, who is listed on the NCBWA Stopper of the Year Watch List, recorded a four-out save in Sunday's series-clinching win.  The save was the 16^th of his career, tying him with Tyler Stohr for the most in the program's D-1 era (2006-present).

Flip the Switch: North Florida found itself down by three runs going into the bottom of the sixth inning on Sunday. In their final three turns at the plate, the Osprey offense accounted for six runs and 11 hits.  Until that point the Ospreys had scored four runs on four hits and left four runners on base.

Tough to Strikeout: Despite putting just two runs on the scoreboard Saturday, the Ospreys did not record a single strikeout at the plate. In fact, there wasn't a single, swing and miss from an Osprey hitter in 26 at bats. It marks the second time since Smoke Laval era that an opposing pitching staff failed to record a strikeout against the Osprey lineup (March 17, 2013 vs. Lafayette).

Going, Going Gone: The long ball got the Ospreys comeback ignited on Sunday with home runs from Nick Karmeris and Alex Merritt. Karmeris cracked his seventh career homer to lead off a five run sixth inning. Merritt pulled the Ospreys within a run courtesy of a two-run blast off the scoreboard in left field. Dating back to last season, Merritt has homered three times in his last 22 at bats.

Clutch Doubles: Senior Keith Skinner, an Atlantic Sun Preseason All-Conference selection at catcher, has provided two big hits for the Ospreys in consecutive games. On Saturday, he broke a scoreless tie with a ground-rule double over the left-center field wall in what amounted to be the game-deciding run. On Sunday he kept a two-out rally alive in the sixth with another double that moved the go-ahead run to third.

Hot Start: After a pinch-hit single and a run scored in the ninth inning of Friday night's game, senior Dakota Higdon has inserted himself into the everyday lineup. The left-handed hitting outfielder has a hit and a run scored in all three games this season. He was 2-for-3 with 2 RBIs in Sunday's win over George Washington.

All-Time vs. SSU/UCF: Savannah State and North Florida have met every year since 2011. The Ospreys hold a 7-2 advantage in the all-time series including a 6-0 edge at Harmon Stadium. North Florida has won four of the last six meetings against UCF including a season sweep of the Knights in 2015. The ospreys took down an 24^th ranked UCF club in late April of last year.

SSU Weekend Recap:  The Tigers dropped three-out-of-four to St. Bonaventure at home this weekend.  Savannah State won the first game of a seven-inning doubleheader, 7-1. Connor Grey struck out seven batters in six innings to earn the win. Mendez Elder leads the Tigers with a .462 batting average (6-for-13). He has two doubles, a triple and two RBIs in four games played.

UCF Weekend Recap: The Knights are fresh off a three-game sweep of Siena at home. The UCF offense was on full display combining for 36 runs in three games. In the season opener on Friday night, the Knights scored five runs in the ninth inning to walk-off with 10-9 victory. Three players have six or more RBIs (Matthew Mika, Kam Gellinger and Matt Diorio). Mika leads the team with a  .538 batting average (7-for-13). The Knights will play Bethune-Cookman on Tuesday before hosting the Ospreys at Jay Bergmann Field.