JACKSONVILLE, FLA. – Behind a four-run fifth inning, the Presbyterian College baseball team opened the 2022 season with an 8-7 victory over North Florida on Friday night at Harmon Stadium. Senior Kyle Decker led the Blue Hose offense with three hits.
FINAL SCORE: Presbyterian 8, North Florida 7
LOCATION: Harmon Stadium (Jacksonville, Fla.)
RECORDS: Presbyterian (1-0) | North Florida (0-1)
W: Luke Matthews (1-0) | L: Tony Roca (0-1) | Save: Eric Toth (1)
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Dalton Reeves got the Blue Hose on the board first with a hard-hit RBI groundout that scored Decker.
- The top of the first was capped with an RBI single from Chris Veach to give PC the early 2-0 lead.
- North Florida got on the board in the third inning with a two-out RBI double to cut the PC lead in half at 2-1 after three frames.
- PC's put together a big inning in the fifth as Decker scored first on a wild pitch from North Florida before an error by the Ospreys allowed two more to score in the inning.
- The four-run inning was capped by Joel Dragoo's first college RBI to push the Blue Hose lead to 6-1 thru 4.5 innings.
- North Florida cut into the PC lead with three in its half of the fifth to make it 6-4 after five innings.
- Presbyterian extended its lead in the eighth when Chase Hughes connected on a solo home run to right field. The Blue Hose tacked on one more with an RBI single off the bat of Decker to make it 8-4 after 7.5 frames.
- The Ospreys plated two runs in the eighth to cut the Blue Hose lead to 8-6 as we headed to the ninth inning.
- North Florida was able to scratch across one more in the ninth but left the bases loaded as Eric Toth recorded his first save of the season.
NOTABLES
- Luke Matthews tossed 2.1 scoreless innings in relief on Friday as he earned his first collegiate victory. Matthews totaled a career-high three strikeouts.
- Decker led the Blue Hose offense with three hits in Friday's contest. Toth, Joel Dragoo, and Jack Gorman each had a pair of hits as well.
- Gorman recorded his first two collegiate steals with the Blue Hose as well.
- Hughes's eighth-inning home run was the second of his career and the first since March 4 2020 when he hit one against Wofford.
- It's the first season-opening win for the Blue Hose since Feb. 16, 2018, when PC knocked off La Salle in Clinton by the score of 7-3.
- PC had all nine starters reach base in the contest.
- The Blue Hose pitching staff was able to strand 15 Ospreys on the base paths en route to the tight 8-7 win.
- Dragoo, Gorman, and Reeves got the first starts of their respective Blue Hose career on Friday night.
UP NEXT
- The Blue Hose continues their opening weekend series on Saturday at 2 p.m. with game two against North Florida. The series is slated to wrap up on Sunday at 1 p.m. from Jacksonville.
