JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Thanks to three home runs, including a
Cade Reich grand slam, North Florida baseball (4-4) took the deciding game of a three-game set with Villanova, 9-7, Sunday, Feb. 26.
UNF has now homered 15 times as a team on the year, taking both three-game series played across the season-opening eight-game home stand.
The teams combined for five home runs and oddly enough, the last play of the game was a home run by the visiting team. Due to Villanova's (1-5) travel curfew, the game-ended at 3 p.m. on the dot, finishing things with UNF up two runs.
UNF 9, Villanova 7
Pitchers of Record
Win:
Dominick Madonna (2-1)
Loss: Cole Vanderslice (0-1)
Save:
Lance Bolton (1)
Line Scores
VILLANOVA | 7R, 10H, E, 11 LOB
UNF | 9R, 8H, E, 7 LOB
Behind the Line Score
- UNF evaded danger in the first. Villanova loaded the bags with nobody out, but Avery Love buckled down to get a pair of strikeouts and a popout.
- The same result ensued in the bottom half. Villanova's starter walked two and plunked another, but a backwards "k" and double play got the Wildcats out of it.
- Villanova got on the board with a leadoff double and two-out single, but Love stranded the bags loaded again.
- Dallen Leach made Nova's Sal Fusco pay for leaving a 1-2 fastball at the belt, as the catcher launched a solo home run to right center to tie it up.
- UNF took the lead with a two-run third, sparked by Aidan Sweatt's leadoff walk. Austin Brinling hooked an RBI double inside the right field line, moved to third on a groundout and scored on Gabriel Esquivel's RBI groundout.
- Nova evened it up with a towering two-run home run to right field in the fourth
- UNF's 14th homer on the year came via a two-run bomb to left center from Cherokee Nichols. Nichols took a hanging breaking ball over the wall, driving Sweatt in with the long ball.
- Villanova got one back in the sixth with an RBI single back up the box, but Gabriel Esquivel made a huge play, sliding to snag a line drive at first to strand two in scoring position.
- A good chance at insurance runs slipped away in the sixth when Villanova's left fielder made a diving catch on a line drive in left with one away. The Wildcats coaxed a groundout to escape.
- Lance Bolton shut the door in the seventh, fanning the side
- Reich blew things open with a grand slam out to the trucks parked beyond the fence in left center, making it 9-4 in the seventh
- Villanova made it interesting with a three-run homer in the ninth, but the travel curfew ended things at three with UNF up two runs.
Statistical Leaders
VILLANOVA
- Craig Larsen | 3-for-5, RBI
- Cameron Hassert | 2-for-5, R, 3RBI, HR
- Luke Mutz | 1-for-1, 3R, 2RBI, HR, 4BB
UNF
- Dallen Leach | 2-for-2, HR, R, RBI, BB
- Cherokee Nichols | 1-for-2, 2R, 2RBI, HR, BB
- Aidan Sweatt | 1-for-3, 2R, BB
Notes
- It was Leach's second-multi-hit game of the series
- Today's game completed an eight-game home stand to start the year, the longest in the program's DI era to open the season.
- Reich hit the first grand slam for the Ospreys since Brock Edge March 19, 2022 against Liberty
- Reich is on an eight-game hitting streak
- UNF has homered in six of eight games
- Madonna has picked up a win in both series
- Bolton earned his first save
- It was the second-longest outing of Avery Love's career
- Leach hit his first home run since April 22 against Liberty
- Sweatt surpassed 40-career walks
- Bolton has already turned in five appearances
- UNF had eight home runs in the series
Up Next
UNF plays its first road game of the year at FAMU Tuesday at 4 p.m.
