WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – After a marathon doubleheader on Saturday that included roughly five hours worth of rain delays, the No. 16 Nova Southeastern Sharks baseball team played another marathon, this time a battle with the Palm Beach Atlantic Sailfish that lasted over five hours and took 14 innings to complete, ending on a walk-off wild pitch in favor of the Sailfish.
INSIDE THE MATCHUP:
Game 1 Score: Palm Beach Atlantic –
7, Nova Southeastern –
6
Records: Nova Southeastern (3-7), Palm Beach Atlantic (3-4)
Location: J.M. "Jake" Rubin Field at the Rinker Athletic Complex, West Palm Beach, Fla.
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HOW IT HAPPENED:
Batting first for the first time this season, the Sharks got on board immediately.
Tyler Epstein started things off with a liner back up the middle, followed by walks to
Duncan Pastore and
Adan Fernandez. With the bases loaded, the Sharks turned to
Andrew Labosky, who reached on a fielder's choice error by the first baseman, who threw the ball off Fernandez, allowing two runners to score.
Michael Uz then padded the lead in the following inning with a towering leadoff home run to left field, his first as a collegiate player.
However, the Sailfish quickly used small ball to tie the game in the bottom half. Starter
Matt Ornelas got a strikeout to begin the frame, but the batter still reached on a passed ball. A pair of two-strike base hits ensued to put PBA on the board, and then the next four Sailfish batters bunted – two sacrifices and two singles – for the second and third runs.
After forcing the Sailfish to switch pitchers,
Alex Hernandez sent the Sharks back in front in the third on a bases-loaded single - a grounder through the hole on the left side of the field to score Fernandez. The Sailfish tied it again in the bottom of the inning on three consecutive two-out hits, but Uz did make a great play to keep the game tied, firing a perfect strike from left field to Hernandez on the third of those hits for his first career outfield assist.
After a scoreless fourth, the Sharks broke the tie for the third time, when
Bryan Diaz lifted the second long ball of the night into right field, a two-run shot with Fernandez ahead of him.
The Sharks held onto that two-run lead, despite drama from both sides. In the bottom of the sixth,
Jacob Bove, the first reliever out of the bullpen, worked around back-to-back singles to start the inning. In the seventh, Pastore led off with a double but was picked off when the shortstop seemed to step on his hand and force him off the base. They got the first two batters to reach in the eighth, but pinch-runner
Nathan Chevalier was thrown out trying to advance to third on Hernandez's single to left. Hernandez later reached third on a wild pitch but was stranded there.
Jarret Krzyzanowski came in for the bottom of the eighth, relieving Bove, who threw two scoreless innings, and quickly found himself in trouble, starting with a rare error by
Brandon Chinea, who was something of a vacuum for baseballs, successfully making every play for the first seven innings. A walk and a pair of bloop singles resulted in the Sailfish tying the game for the third time.
Lucas Reid came on, and after the first batter battled to a walk, loading the bases, he rebounded with two big strikeouts and a groundout to end the threat.
Making second appearance of the year and in as many games,
Matt Kavanaugh came in for the ninth, working two 1-2-3 innings before allowing his first hit of the night in the 12th, giving way to
Stephen Schissler, who came in from right field to capture the final two outs with ease, earning a 1-2-3 inning of his own in the 13th. In the 14
th, Schissler allowed a single to the leadoff batter, who then advanced on a balk. After hitting a batter with one out,
Marvin Guzman came on in relief, getting a grounder for out number two. But he threw a wild pitch to the next batter, bringing the winning run in to score.
Schissler (0-1) took the loss for the Sharks, allowing the run on one hit in two innings of work with a strikeout. Mitchell Price picked up the win, working a scoreless top of the 14th.
STATS OF THE GAME
- The Sharks played their longest game since Feb. 19, 1999, when they defeated Webber College on the road 9-5 in 21 innings of Sun Conference action.
- Uz joins Olivier Mayrand and Stephen Schissler as freshmen with a home run already this season. Both Uz and Schissler got their first career homers in their first starts, as well.
- Pastore, Fernandez, and Hernandez led the team with two hits each, while Fernandez also scored twice.
- Pastore's double was his sixth of the season, matching his total from all of last season.
- The Sharks were outhit 15-10 and each team committed three errors.
- In just 3.1 innings, Kavanaugh struck out six batters, more than half of the team's total of 11, and allowed just one hit and one walk.
- After scoring their final runs of the game in the fifth, the Sharks had 10 baserunners in the final nine innings (two singles, two doubles, three walks, two hit batters, one error), stranding six of them, after having two runners erased trying to advance, and one each on a pickoff and a double play.
- Four of the team's seven losses have been by one run.
UP NEXT
The Sharks will open Sunshine State Conference play this weekend in Miami Shores, beginning a three-game series with the Barry Buccaneers on Friday at 6:00 p.m. The Sharks have won each of the last six conference series with the Bucs dating back to 2014, as well as four straight road series, going back to 2012.
