Featured Image: Justin Nedrow

It has been a dominant year for the Ospreys in the River City Rumble, and this weekend’s softball series against the Dolphins of JU continued the trend.

With rainy weather in Jacksonville throughout the weekend, the series didn’t go exactly as planned. The doubleheader that was initially scheduled for Saturday was postponed to Monday, with a single game taking place Saturday to open the series at JU’s Pruitt Softball Complex.

Saturday’s matchup got things off to a positive start for UNF, despite the weather being anything but. An early barrage of offense in the first inning, including a two-run RBI single by Paige Pfent, gave the Ospreys a 5-0 lead through one inning.

Things would become quiet until a JU RBI single put the Dolphins on the board in the fourth inning. Still, down four runs, JU had their work cut off for them, but a three-hour weather delay would delay their momentum. 

UNF looked to pad their lead with a lead-off Kayla McGory triple to start the seventh inning. Bringing in McGory was an RBI single by Shannon Glover, bolstering the Osprey lead to 6-1. The Dolphins did go on to put up a couple of runs, but it was too little too late as UNF took the first game 6-3.

Skipping a day, the two teams were set to square off for a doubleheader on Monday afternoon. Once again, the Ospreys struck first, but this would be countered by the Dolphins, taking a 2-1 lead after the first inning. 

Kayla McGory was not done leaving her impact on the series, as she belted a home run to tie the game at 2-2 in the top of the third. A double courtesy of Brittany Sundermeier then helped UNF take a 4-2 lead in the fourth. Things were going their way, but would the Ospreys be able to hang on?

Now up 5-2 thanks to a Shannon Glover sacrifice fly, the UNF defense faced significant opposition in the sixth. A wild pitch and RBI single allowed JU to narrow the gap to just one run. This gap would vanish with a sacrifice fly by JU’s Allison Bratek.

This tie would continue into extra innings, where Paige Pfent continued to shine. A go-ahead home run in the top of the eighth would ultimately secure the victory for the Ospreys. One more win would complete the sweep, but this fell short as JU controlled the third game, winning 12-4 in five innings.

While the sweep may not have come to fruition, it was undoubtedly an effort to be proud of as the Ospreys took two of three games from their arch-rivals. This weekend’s results boost UNF to 16-19 on the year and 4-2 against JU this season.

The squad will be back in action this weekend on campus to host a doubleheader against conference-foe Liberty on Sunday. Follow along with Spinnaker for the latest on UNF athletics.

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