Box Score Thursday night's series opening 4-3 loss to visiting Lipscomb at Melching Field was an especially frustrating defeat for the Stetson Hatters, who had battled back from an early 3-0 deficit, only to lose in extra innings.
The loss for Stetson (25-27, 9-10 in Atlantic Sun Conference play) drops the Hatters to a game behind Lipscomb (28-25, 10-9) in the A-Sun standings as the teams battle for seeding in next week's conference tournament. Stetson is now tied for fifth place in the league race with Florida Gulf Coast, which lost to Kennesaw State on Thursday night.
After spotting the Bisons an early lead in the game, Stetson came back by scoring a run in the sixth and two more in the eighth to tie the game. The Hatters had two runners on base with one out in the ninth, but were unable to push across the winning run against Lipscomb reliever Jaesung Hwang (3-1).
In the 10th, Lipscomb's Michael Gigliotti led off with a ground ball to short, but Matt Morales' throw was wide of the bag at first, opening the door for the Bisons to score the go-ahead run. Consecutive singles from Lee Solomon and Adam Lee, through a drawn in infield, plated the run off Stetson closer Walker Sheller (2-3).
“It takes a total effort to win close games,” Hatters head coach Pete Dunn said. “We overcame some mistakes and had a chance to win it in the ninth, but didn't get it done. That was where the total effort stopped, and we paid for it with a loss.
“I think I can speak for everyone here in saying that it is just so frustrating to watch what happened tonight. We put ourselves in position to win and then made a mistake on a routine play.”
Lipscomb took advantage of an error in the third inning to get on the board first. Hunter Hanks reached when Cory Reid's throw to first was wide on his ground ball, and Gigliotti followed with an RBI triple into the right field corner. Gigliotti then scored on a Solomon ground ball to first to give the Bisons a 2-0 lead.
The Bisons added to their lead in the fifth inning when, after Allan Hooker walked and stole second, Solomon delivered a two-out single through the left side to make it 3-0. All three runs came off Stetson starter Mitchell Jordan, but only two were earned.
Jordan allowed just two hits in his five innings of work. He walked two and struck out three. Both he and Lipscomb starter Brady Puckett showed a lot of tenacity for coming back after an hour and 13-minute weather delay in the second inning to pitch well.
Puckett kept the Hatters off the board until the sixth inning when Colton Lightner drew a leadoff walk, moved up to third on a single by Vance Vizcaino and then scored when Morales hit into a double play. Puckett was lifted in favor of Kyle Weller after the run scored, but held the Hatters to just the one run on three hits with the one walk and five strikeouts.
“Both starting pitchers threw really well, even though I don't think either of them had their best stuff,” Dunn said. “If the weather delay had gone any longer than it did, I don't know if we would have let Mitchell go back out.”
Stetson tied the game in the eighth inning, scoring twice off Weller. Kevin Fagan started things by drawing a one out walk. He moved up to third on a single by Jacob Koos and then scored on a ground out by Vizcaino. Morales then delivered a two out single off side-winding left-hander Cody Glenn to tie the game.
“Coming back and tying it up like we did, that is what you are looking for at this time of the year when you are just five days away from the conference tournament,” Dunn said. “That is the kind of resilience that will help you win tournament games but, you can't do that and then just give it away.
“We had all of the momentum going our way, and then just gave the game away.”
Hwang worked the final 2.1 innings for Lipscomb to get the win. He did not allow a hit, but walked two and struck out two.
Stetson managed just six hits in the game, two of those by Fussell, who extended his hitting streak to a team season-best 13 games. Solomon and Von Watson had two hits each for Lipscomb, which managed just seven hits in the game.
The Hatters will try to even the series on Friday night. Before that game, however, Stetson will take a few minutes to recognize 11 seniors for their contributions to the Hatters baseball program. The first pitch, weather permitting, is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.
Saturday's series finale has been moved up to an 11 a.m. start time to accommodate Lipscomb's flight plans back to Nashville.
