Lipscomb had its first home-conference weekend against North Florida, but Lipscomb’s bats didn’t get started until Sunday afternoon.
In the first game of the series on Friday nothing seemed to be going Lipscomb’s way. The Bisons fell behind in the top first and were never able to battle back.
Starting pitcher Brady Puckett had an unusually rough game. He allowed five runs through seven innings, and eventually Lipscomb went on to lose Friday’s contest 11-1.
“This is not the way you want to start off any series,” Jeff Forehand, Lipscomb baseball head coach said. “We got off to a rough start and just couldn’t turn it around.”
This game started much different for Lipscomb as they jumped out to a 4-1 lead by the end of the 3rd inning, but it wouldn’t last. UNF battled back and it was capped off by a 3-run 7th inning.
“This was a tough loss, because we were leading for most of the game, and even after they came back and tied it we were still looking good,” Forehand said. “But it didn’t go our way. We were a hit or two away from it being a different story. This was just one of those games where they played better than we did.”
UNF finished game two with double-digit hits for the third straight game. They went on to win game two, 7-5.
The Bisons turned to junior pitcher Dayton Tripp to avoid a sweep by the Ospreys. Tripp was coming off a poor performance in his last start as he gave up seven runs in just .1 innings against USC Upstate last weekend.
Tripp bounced back this weekend as he went 5.1 innings allowing just one 1 and struck out five hitters.
Lipscomb was led offensively by senior Hunter Hanks. Hanks went 3-4 with two RBIs and scored two runs.
“I love being in a spot with runners on base, because that’s when I try my hardest to come through for the team and with confidence you feel like you can hit any pitch,” Hanks said.
Lipscomb went on to win the final game of the series 8-1.
“Baseball is a funny game. North Florida smashed the ball all weekend and then today we hold them to four hits,” coach Forehand said. “When good teams are playing each other those kind of things are going to happen, no matter if it’s college or professional.”
Lipscomb’s next game will be at home against Western Kentucky on Tuesday at 6 p.m.
Photo courtesy of Lipscomb Athletics