The University of North Florida baseball team swept Brown University over the weekend in convincing fashion, scoring a combined 34 runs over the four-game set. With these victories, the Ospreys have extended their winning streak to six games, including recent triumphs over Notre Dame and Florida A&M.
Game 1
The Ospreys surged to a 9-3 win in the opening act of the series, on the back of a 5 run 8th inning that was punctuated by a 3-run home run from senior first baseman Cade Bush, his 1st of the season. Senior Jabin Bates went 2-3, recording 3 RBI on a single and a sacrifice fly. Senior Brady Browning added a solo homerun in the fourth inning to help power the Ospreys to the victory.
The Osprey pitching staff, led by sophomore Zane Starling and junior Kai Etwaru, recorded 13 strikeouts and gave up 3 earned runs over the nine innings.
Game 2
Despite the Bears putting together a 4-run 6th inning, the Ospreys rode early momentum to win by a final of 7-4.
UNF struck quickly, grabbing an early run on an error that allowed sophomore center fielder Nick Monile to score. Then, Jabin Bates hit his first homerun of the season in the 2nd inning, a two run shot that extended the Osprey lead to 3-0. Senior infielder Connor Moore added a two-run triple in the 6th inning to put the game out of reach for Brown.
Junior right-handed pitcher Will Ross recorded 4 strikeouts over five-plus innings pitched in the first win of his collegiate career. Kaden Humphrey picked up his first save of the year, picking up a strikeout in 2.1 innings of work.
Game 3
The Osprey bats remained hot and freshman right-hander Bryson Treichel twirled six scoreless innings to help UNF cruise to an 8-0 win. Treichel only allowed one hit and struck out four, while senior right-hander Clayton Boroski closed out the contest with a scoreless inning.
Offensively, junior left-fielder James Oman was the star of the game, going 2-3 with a double, stolen base and 4 RBI. Sophomore shortstop Mitchell Collins also went 2-3, scoring twice and picking up an RBI.
Game 4
UNF completed the sweep dominantly, as Cade Bush hit his second home run of the series (and the season) to propel the Ospreys to a 10-2 victory.
Senior outfielder Drew Leinenbach stayed hot at the plate, going 3-4 and scoring two runs. Jabin Bates had another solid performance, going 2-4 with a double, a walk and an RBI. Five Osprey pitchers combined to give up just two runs over the nine innings, striking out 13 Bears batters.
Post-Series Thoughts
Reflecting on the four-game set, head coach Joe Mercadante mentioned how impressed he was with the offense during the winning streak.
“I think Coach (Brad) Wilkerson has done a great job, really getting them in a good mindset,” he said. “We don’t have one guy trying to be the team. Everybody’s just doing their job, and that’s fun baseball. It’s fun to coach.”
Mercadante also looked towards the future, noting that while the winning streak was impressive, there’s still much more baseball left to be played.
“Obviously, the baseball is going to get harder as we go,” he said. “I think if we keep playing at the level we’re playing at, and executing the way we’re executing, we’re going to be ok.
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