A fast start against the defending A-Sun pitcher of the year turned into a long, frustrating night for the Stetson Hatters on Friday at Melching Field in an 8-3 series opening loss to Jacksonville.

The loss dropped the Hatters to 20-22 overall and 4-6 in league play while JU improved to 26-14, 8-2 in conference play. The teams will meet again on Saturday night at 6:30 p.m. in the second game of the series. The late start is a result of many of the Hatters players having final exams on Saturday morning.

The Hatters got off to a quick start against JU sophomore right-hander Michael Baumann (4-2), scoring two runs in the first inning. John Fussell doubled in Vance Vizcaino for the first run and Kirk Sidwell's sacrifice fly scored Cory Reid for an early 2-0 lead.

Stetson's other run came home in the fourth when Austin Hale delivered a two-out bloop single to right, scoring Fussell.

Stetson's Brooks Wilson (4-6) appeared to have the Dolphins' offense under control through three innings, but JU came to life, scoring two in the fourth, four in the fifth and two more in the sixth. All eight runs were charged to Wilson, but four of them were unearned thanks to two of the Hatters' four errors in the game.

“You have to pick the ball up and make the routine plays,” Hatters coach Pete Dunn said. “We gave up four earned runs tonight and we gave away four. That took us out of any chance to win the ball game. We kicked the ball all over the place, and on routine plays. They are not tough plays.

“Of course, we only had four hits going into the ninth inning. We got two hits there when it didn't matter. That is a bad combination. When you give up four runs, you should be in the game. When you are chasing one or two runs it is a lot different than chasing five.”

The first costly error for the Hatters came in the fourth when, after Wilson retired the first two hitters, Angel Camacho singled through the left side. Connor Stephens followed with a ground ball to short that Matt Morales was unable to handle, opening the door for the Dolphins.

Franco Guardascione and Nathan Koslowski both delivered RBI singles, tying the score at 2-2.

The Dolphins earned all of their runs in the fifth inning, getting four singles and a walk to score four runs. Austin Hays and J.J. Gould both drove in runs before Guardascione plated a pair with another two-out hit.

JU got two more unearned runs in the sixth. Dakota Julylia and Parker Perez opened the inning with consecutive hits to chase Wilson. Joey Gonzalez came on to pitch for Stetson and got a ground ball to second, but Kevin Fagan got shielded by Perez running to second and was unable to make a play, allowing Julylia to score. After a strikeout and an intentional walk, Camacho delivered a sacrifice fly to make it 8-3.

“This team is hitting under .250 for the season and we have not shown that we can put together a big inning,” Dunn said. “We can't give away runs like that and expect to come back.”

The Dolphins got 10 of their hits in the game off Wilson, who walked two and struck out one in his five innings of work. Gonzalez, Tyler Keller, Jack Perkins and Erik Wiebke combined to keep JU off the board over the final three innings.

“Pitchers get to a point where, if you don't make plays behind them when they make good pitches and get ground balls, and we kick them all over the place, they start trying to do too much,” Dunn said. “They start trying to make perfect pitches and strike people out because they don't have confidence that the defense will make plays behind them.

“We preach to our pitchers to pitch to contact because it is the right things to do. The thing behind that is the defense has to pick up the ball and make plays.”

Perez led Jacksonville's 13-hit attack with four hits while Guardascione had three and Hays had two. No one for Stetson had more than one hit.