Despite defeating the No. 1 team in the nation last week, the Lipscomb baseball team came up short losing the series to the University of North Florida this weekend at Ken Dugan Field at Stephen L. Marsh Stadium.
The Bisons lost the first game of the series 4-3. They took the second game 11-3, but lost the final game Sunday 8-0.
“I have to give credit to North Florida as they showed all weekend that they could hit,” head coach Jeff Forehand said. “They made it very difficult for us and in the end we didn’t get the job done.”
Forehand went on to talk about the outstanding pitching performance by UNF.
“When a team pitches that well and makes great runs it’s difficult to get into the game. If we don’t get a run through, we can’t really play the game.”
This is the first home series Lipscomb has dropped since the weekend of April 26, 2013 when Stetson came in and took 2-of-3.
North Florida senior Trent Higginbothem, gave the Ospreys the initial lead hitting his sixth home run of the year, a two-run shot in the third inning.
UNF pitcher Matt Vaka allowed only a couple of hits and three walks in five innings, in the final stage of the series. Throughout the whole afternoon, Vaka only allowed three runners to move into scoring position, which lowered his ERA to 1.72 for the season.
The only chance the Bisons gave themselves to score was in the sixth inning when Josh Lee lead by drawing a one-out walk to give Lipscomb a scoring opportunity. Following the walk, Allan Hooker almost tied it up but UNF’s right fielder, Garrick Ferguson, nabbed Lee from advancing to second base. The aggressive play took away any momentum the Bisons might have had going into the final innings.
“When this sort of thing happens, I have to take my hat off to the opposition. They took us out of position and forced us out of any opportunity to advance,” Forehand said. “We obviously just want to get back out there. We knew these games were going to be tough and today proved that.”
“There are some things we will correct and other plays we will go over. For now we are just looking to see what we can improve.”
UNF pulled out a second two-run home run of the day to top off the scoring in the ninth inning, which left the Bisons with an impossible comeback in place. Lipscomb only managed four hits through the three hour game and were led by Grant Massey who finished the game 2-for-4.
The Bisons will host Murray State on Tuesday. The first pitch is set to take place at 6 p.m.
Photo courtesy of Lipscomb Athletics