PENSACOLA, Fla. – The UWF baseball team went back and forth with Alabama Huntsville but came up just a bit short in a 6-5 loss at Jim Spooner Field Sunday. The Argonauts took the series, 2-1, following Saturday's doubleheader sweep.
UWF (19-14, 14-7 Gulf South) had 12 hits, including four extra base efforts but left five runners in scoring position.
"The first and second inning came back to bite us like it has before," UWF head coach
Mike Jeffcoat said. "We weren't able to tie the game but I was proud of the way the guys competed. If we keep playing like this we are going to have success the rest of the way down the road."
Trent Jeffcoat and
Travis Gregory each had three hits for the Argonauts, while
Jadon Fryman had a pair of hits and two RBI, including a solo home run. Jeffcoat had two doubles in the game and finished with weekend 9-for-12 at the plate.
UAH scored three in the first inning, plating a pair of runs on a bases-loaded fielder's choice off the bat of Carson Villalta before Brennan Vasquez drove in Jackson Lindsey on a 2-out single to right.
The Argonauts got two runs back in the bottom of the inning. Jeffcoat led off with a double and then scored two batters later on a
Brady Browning ground out. Fryman followed as he sent his second homer of the year into the left field party deck.
UAH got one of the runs back in the second. Garrett Bodine singled to lead off the inning, stole second and scored on Landon Ezell's single into the gap in left center.
UWF answered right back on a
Chris Johnson single up the middle that scored Gregory from second.
After two scoreless frames for each team, Ezzell hit the first pitch of the fifth inning over the wall in left center to give the Chargers a 5-3 lead. It was his team-leading 10th homer this season.
UAH added to the lead in the sixth when they put a pair of runners on with two outs. That's when Mitchell Rottier singled home Will Noles from second.
The Argonauts put runners in scoring position in the sixth but were unable to score. They did, however, get to UAH starter Connor Brooks and force the Chargers to go to the bullpen in the seventh when Jeffcoat scored on a Fryman groundout, trimming the margin to 6-4.
In the eighth, Jeffcoat delivered a 2-out double to the track in left center to score Johnson from first and pull within one. But the Argos were unable to do anymore damage.
Tyler Dowdy took the loss for UWF, falling to 4-4 in four innings of work, allowing five runs on seven hits.
Brooks improved to 4-3 and Kody Keiser earned his first save, retiring four of the five UWF batters he faced in the final 1.1 innings.
UAH (17-21, 9-11) was led by Bodine and Rottier with three hits apiece.
UWF will open a 6-game road trip with a pair of midweek contests at North Georgia (24-13) on Tuesday and Wednesday. The Argos will then head to Cleveland, Mississippi for a 3-game series on Friday and Sunday at Delta State as the first and second place teams in the GSC meet.
