WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Following last Saturday's gut-wrenching defeat in the series finale against Palm Beach Atlantic, there still appeared to be a bit of carryover on Tuesday versus the Sailfish as Nova Southeastern committed a season-high six errors en route to a narrow 4-3 setback on the road.
The Sharks managed to brush off a pair of miscues right away in the first inning, but eventually saw their mistakes catch up to them with the Sailfish plating a go-ahead, unearned run in the fifth that ultimately stood as the difference in the ball game.
Starting pitcher Devin Meyer looked sharp in his first midweek start of the season, despite dropping to 4-3 on the year. The right-hander surrendered just six hits in eight innings of work, while fanning a season-high seven batters. Furthermore, Meyer sat down nine straight batters in the late innings to keep the Sharks within striking distance.
The momentum was completely in favor of Nova Southeastern following an early three-run second inning. After a Kevin Suarez lead-off single and a walk drawn by Brendan Cutting, Sebastian Diaz put the Sharks on the board with a single laced right back up the middle. Two batters later, Cutting scored on a wild pitch before shortstop Dylan Woods drove in Diaz on a sacrifice fly to left.
From there, however, Nova Southeastern collected only three more hits the rest of the night and struggled to provide any real threat again until the top of the ninth. After reaching base for the third time on a walk, Diaz advanced into scoring position with two away in the final frame. Jancarlos Cintron would eventually ground out to short, though, on a bang-bang play as the Sharks now drop to 24-13 overall on the season.
Mitchell Carroll tossed four scoreless innings out of the bullpen to earn the victory for Palm Beach Atlantic, while Joey Hennessey picked up the six-out save just three nights after securing the win in relief against the Sharks on Saturday.
NSU will return to Sunshine State Conference play on Thursday when its road swing continues at Rollins. For complete coverage of the action, log onto NSUSharks.com or follow the Sharks on Twitter @NSU_Baseball.
