The Stetson University baseball program celebrated Senior Day and Mothers' Day in style on Sunday, winning one game for the seniors and another for their mothers, completing a sweep of visiting North Florida at Melching Field.
 
With the sweep, the Hatters (25-26, 13-5) remain a game behind Jacksonville in the race for the ASUN title with three games left to play. North Florida (32-20, 11-7) is now third. The Ospreys and Dolphins will square off next weekend while the Hatters travel to Nashville for a three-game set against Lipscomb.
 
"How fitting was it that all three seniors had a big part in winning that first game?" Hatters coach Steve Trimper said. "That was three one-run games against a really good club. Coach (Smoke) Laval and North Florida played really hard and we played really hard. Every game could have gone either way, we just happened to get the big hit at the end."
 
The Hatters took the first game of the day 4-3 behind a pair of home runs. The second game, which was scheduled to be a seven-inning contest, went the regular nine, with the Hatters walking off with a 2-1 victory on a single by freshman Andrew MacNeil.
 

Game 1 – Lightner and MacNeil Power Win

 
The Hatters squared off with one of the two unbeaten pitchers left in the ASUN, UNF sophomore Frank German, in the opening game. After stranding five runners in the first three innings, it was MacNeil who delivered the big blow, blasting a three-run homer in the fourth.
 
It was MacNeil's first collegiate home run.
 
"My first at bat I had taken a little bit of a passive swing, so I wanted to be more aggressive the next time," MacNeil said. "He gave me a fastball, middle in and right in my zone, and I just tried to put a good swing on it. Luckily, it got a good result. I knew I hit it pretty well and thought it would be a double. On my way to first I saw that it was carrying and thought it had a chance."
 
That was all for German, who took the loss to fall to 8-1 on the year. It is the second straight week the Hatters have handed an opposing pitcher his first loss after ending Jacksonville's Casey Kulina's perfect run last week.
 
The three runs appeared to be enough for Stetson sophomore Jack Perkins, who improved to 6-4 on the year with the win and also became just the 12^th pitcher in Stetson history to record 100 strikeouts in a season, joining teammate Brooks Wilson.
 
Perkins allowed just one run in his 5.2 innings of work, that coming in the fourth inning when Alex Merritt led off with a single before working his way around to score on a ground ball. He finished his outing having allowed six hits and three walks with seven strikeouts.
 
"It is funny, but maybe we expect too much from these guys," Trimper said. "Perkins went out there in the first game and we are thinking he didn't have his good stuff today, but he gave up just one run on six hits. It is a testament to our pitching staff. They are in great shape because Coach (Dave) Therneau works them really hard.
 
"They are in great shape, their legs are in great shape, and on long, hot days, they are still pitching very well, even if they don't have their best stuff, their strikeout stuff. When you expect 13 of 14 strikeouts every time, and they don't get it, you think they aren't on, but they are still pretty good."
 
Perkins turned the game over to senior Tyler Keller in the sixth inning with a couple of runners on base. He got out of that inning and the Hatters got an insurance run in the bottom of the frame when Lightner blasted his second homer of the year, this one coming off Ospreys' senior reliever Tyler Dupont.
 
"It was a good pitcher for UNF and I just tried to have a good approach and put a good swing on him," Lightner said. "We knew we had to keep adding on because UNF is a scrappy team and we knew they would come back."
 
That comeback happened in the eighth inning when the Ospreys got a walk to start, followed by a double from Merritt and an RBI single from Chris Berry.
 
Stetson brought its third senior, reliever Dean Garabedian, in to pitch at that point. He got a ground out that scored a run, and a pair of pop ups to get out of the inning with the Hatters still holding a 4-3 lead.
 
Garabedian went back out for the ninth and, after allowing a leadoff walk, he put down the next three in order, including ASUN Player of the Year favorite Yahir Gurrola on strikes to end the game and earn his second save.
 
"Dean came in at the end and got the save, Keller had shut it down before that and Colton had the game-winning home run," Trimper said of his seniors. "All three of those guys had a great day."
 
Lightner said it was the perfect way to end the game.
 
"That was the coolest part," Lightner said. "I almost forgot about the things that happened earlier in the game because Tyler came in and did what he had to do and then Dean came in and was just awesome. He is a bulldog and always has been and he shut the door. It was awesome. That was one of the coolest games of my career."
 
Lightner and Koos had two hits each in the game for Stetson while Merritt, Berry and Chris Thibideau had two hits apiece for UNF.
 

Game 2 – Gilbert Deals and MacNeil Comes Up Big Again

 
The second game was all about pitching as the Hatters Logan Gilbert squared off with UNF freshman Cooper Bradford. Both hurlers threw zeroes on the board through the first four innings before the Ospreys took advantage of a pair of hits and a pair of Stetson errors to push a run across in the fifth.
 
Dalton Board opened the inning with a single, but when Wesley Weeks tried to sacrifice, Mike Spooner pounced on his bunt and fired a strike to get Board at second. Weeks stole second and advanced to third when Austin Hale's throw short hopped past Jorge Arenas into center field. Rey Gonzalez then hit a fly to center and Weeks slid home just ahead of the throw from Koos for a 1-0 UNF lead.
 
That looked to be all Bradford would need, except he had a problem. He was able to safely negotiate the Stetson lineup with the exception of two hitters – Hale and Spooner. They had both reached base twice in the game, Spooner with two hits and Hale on a hit and a walk, when Hale led off the sixth inning.
 
He launched a shot into left center that just missed leaving the park, but Hale hustled out of the box and reached third with a triple. Spooner followed with a sacrifice fly to knot the score at 1-1.
 
For the Ospreys, any hope of scoring again evaporated because Gilbert got stronger as the game went. After giving up a two-out single to Patrick Ervin in the fifth, the sophomore retired the final 13 straight.
 
"I was felling pretty good," Gilbert said. "I got the feel for my curveball after a few innings and it was dropping in there for me. As the game went on, I wasn't thinking about it being a hot day out there, I just felt good later in the game and kept going back out there.
 
"I could tell early that I wasn't going to get many swings and misses, but they were making weak contact sometimes and I put my trust in the defense."
 
The Hatters closed out the win in the ninth inning against UNF junior reliever Brad Depperman (4-3). After leaving a pair of runners on base in the eighth inning, the Hatters finally got the big hit in the ninth.
 
Austin Bogart led off the inning with a single and Lightner got him to second with a sacrifice bunt. Nico Torino followed with a single to right-center, but Trimper made the call to hold Bogart at third.
 
"We pinch-hit early in the game for Ben Rowdon, and Nico went in there, even though he hasn't played a lot recently, and gets a big hit," Trimper said. "It could have been the game-winning hit, but I chose not to send the runner because I thought he might get thrown out. A lot of guys contributed."
 
The decision not to send Bogart on Torino's hit was justified when MacNeil stepped up and laced a single into left-center to end the game.
 
"I had faced Bradford in my first three at bats, but they brought in the new guy," MacNeil said. "Bradford was living down in the zone on me with some good curveballs, so when I went up there with a runner at third and less than two outs I was looking for something I could elevate, something up in the zone that I could hit hard. I got a fastball over the middle of the plate and put a good swing on it."
 
That hit gave Gilbert, who posted his second complete game of the year, his league-leading ninth victory. He struck out six with no walks while allowing five hits and just the one unearned run to run his record to an ASUN best 9-0. He is just four strikeouts away from joining the 100K club this year.
 
"It goes back to what has kept us going over our last 30 games – our pitching," Trimper said. "We got great pitching performances again. At the beginning of the year, we were wishing we could win games. Now, we are expecting to win games. We are doing a lot of the little things right."
 
Despite scoring just two runs, the Hatters had 13 hits in the second game. Spooner finished with three while Hale and Kirk Sidwell had two each.
 
"Even when we don't get a bunt down, someone is getting a big hit," Trimper said. "We are getting great pitching and playing great defense, for the most part. This is my first trip around the conference and there are a lot of good, evenly matched, teams. We are just finding ways to win."
 
Lightner said he can't imagine having a better result in his final home games.
 
"It was a great senior day and a great Mothers' Day," Lightner said. "MacNeil has been a spark plug for us. He made an adjustment from his first at bat and just crushed that ball to put us on the board. That set the tone for the rest of that game. Then he gets the walk off. He got the chance and was calm and collected and just stroked it out there to win it. It was a perfect way to end it."
 
The Hatters also know there is still plenty left to play for.
 
"This was huge, to get the sweep over UNF to stay close to first place," Gilbert said. "We need to have one more good weekend going into the conference tournament. I feel good about our chances."
 
With the spring semester over, the Hatters can focus all of their attention on baseball.
 
"We are going to practice tomorrow because we are out of school, so it is all baseball all the time," Trimper said. "We just have to continue to work hard. We are playing decent, but we have to keep finding ways to play better.
 
"My saying is that you have to get five percent better every day, so we have to be creative and get better going up to Lipscomb next week. We have to go up there and try to take them one at a time and see if Jacksonville and UNF can beat each other up so that we can win a championship."
 
The Hatters will travel to Nashville on Wednesday before squaring off with the Bisons on Thursday night at 7 p.m. and again on Friday at 7 p.m. The teams will close out the regular season on Saturday, with the first pitch slated for 2 p.m.
 
The 2017 ASUN Baseball Tournament will open on Wednesday, May 24, back at Melching Field.
 
About Stetson University Athletics: Stetson University's Athletics Program has a vision of developing a culture of champions athletically, academically and within the community. This vision is accomplished through a mission of recruiting and developing student-athletes, coaches and staff, creating a culture of champions, within and outside of competition. The department operates with five core values: Championship Culture, Integrity, Excellence, Pride/Tradition and Leadership. To learn more about the Vision, Mission and Core Values for Stetson Athletics, visit GoHatters.com and click on Mission Statement under the Inside Athletics tab.