LAKELAND, Fla. – Aided by a stalwart close-out pitching performance by Jeremy Cook, the Nova Southeastern Sharks baseball team carried an early lead to victory, defeating the Florida Southern Moccasins, 11-7, to open their final Sunshine State Conference series of the pandemic-shortened 2021 regular season.
INSIDE THE MATCHUP:
Final Score: Nova Southeastern – 11, Florida Southern – 7
Records: Nova Southeastern (13-10, 11-10 SSC), Florida Southern (13-11, 12-10 SSC)
Location: Henley Field, Lakeland, Fla.
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HOW IT HAPPENED:
The Sharks gained the upper hand from the beginning and never looked back, leading off the game with back-to-back hit batters and a walk that loaded the bases before a single out was recorded. Alex Hernandez brought in the first runs of the game with two coming home on a misplayed grounder by the shortstop, then Daniel Irisarri recorded the first hit of the game, a double in the right-center field gap to score two more.
NSU kept it going into the second inning, with Tyler Epstein swatting his fourth home run of the season, a one-out solo shot. After a pair of walks, Alex Hernandez hit a ball that would have brought both runners home had it not bounced over the wall for a ground-rule double – he settled for the one RBI and for the team’s 6-0 advantage.
Meanwhile, starter Cooper Omans was pitching through traffic, stranding two baserunners in each of the first two innings, working around a pair of two-out singles in the first and a leadoff double and a fielder’s choice in which he attempted to get the lead runner at second. However, his luck ran out in the third when the Mocs collected three straight singles to load the bases, bringing them all in on a Connor Berry triple to right-center and Cade Shissler sacrifice fly that cut the lead down to just two runs.
The Sharks offense got right back to work in the fourth. Epstein doubled just inside the third base bag and down the line, coming around to score on Andrew Labosky’s RBI single. Adan Fernandez followed with his team-best eighth homer of the year to put the Sharks back up by a more comfortable 9-4 margin. Alex Steinbach added another double to chase Mocs starter Nathan Madej from the game, after allowing three walks, three hit batters, and eight hits – including four doubles and two homers – in addition to the nine runs. Two more walks loaded the bases, but they were all stranded there on a groundout to end the inning.
Carlos Rey came on to pitch for the bottom of the inning and Florida Southern swipped a couple runs back on a two-out, two-run Jacob Teter homer, but Stephen Schissler immediately answered back for the Sharks with a leadoff solo shot of his own. NSU had a chance for more with runners on first and second and one out, but a double play ended that threat, leaving the Sharks ahead, 10-6, at the game’s midway point.
The Sharks added what would prove to be their last run of the game in the sixth thanks to Irisarri, who walked, stole second, advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on Adam Smith’s sacrifice fly. In the meantime, Rey was doing his part to keep the Mocs at bay, leaving the bases full in both the fifth and sixth innings –the latter after allowing just one run in when the first three batters of the inning all reached base, but he got a timely groundout back to himself, opting for the runner at home, and a strikeout to escape the jam.
Surprisingly, after a combined 40 baserunners for the two teams in the first six innings – 22 for the Sharks (10 hits, eight walks, three hit batters, and one error) and 18 for the Mocs (14 hits, two walks, one hit batter, and one fielder’s choice) – 20 of them left on base without a single 1-2-3 inning, the final three frames saw just three baserunners total; a walk for the Sharks in the seventh, an NSU single in the eighth, a seventh-inning Moccasin single and a combined streak of 12 straight batters retired to end the game. On the mound for the Sharks, that was all because of the great work done by Jeremy Cook, who allowed the single to the first batter he faced, then sent the next nine away in order to shut the door on any potential late-inning comeback with the three-inning save.
STATS OF THE DAY
- The Sharks put up double-digit runs for the seventh time this season and the third time in the last four games.
- Tyler Epstein, Andrew Labosky, and Adan Fernandez, out of the top three spots in the Sharks’ batting order, combined for eight of the 11 runs scored.
- Eight different players had at least one hit for the Sharks, but the total of 11 was well spread out, in true team fashion, with no player having more than two.
- Seven of the 11 hits went for extra bases, with their four doubles and three home runs both matching season highs.
- Epstein, Labosky, and Alex Hernandez had the team’s three two-hit performances. For Epstein, who had both a double and a home run, it marked his first multi-extra-base hit outing since the first game of the doubleheader at Rollins on April 10, while Hernandez has three multi-hit games in a row and Labosky has four in his last five appearances.
- Labosky also extended his on-base streak to 11 consecutive games, one short of Adan Fernandez, who reached safely in the first 12 games of the season, for longest on the team.
- Labosky’s fifth-inning stolen base makes him a perfect 12-for-12 on the season, extending his string of success to 13 in a row dating back to last season, the last time he was caught being February 29, 2020 during the Embry-Riddle series.
- Jeremy Cook’s performance was the best of his career, and an impressive rebound from a rocky outing at Saint Leo last week. It was his second (and longest) scoreless outing as a Shark, and his five strikeouts set a new season-high, his most since February 6 of last year, when he struck out six in four innings vs. Colorado Mesa, the second appearance of his career. It also gives him two three-inning saves on the year, the first coming in that same half of the Rollins doubleheader on April 10.
UP NEXT
The Mocs will make the return trip for Saturday’s regular-season finale doubleheader, with the first pitch scheduled for 2:00 P.M. and the Sharks’ Senior Day ceremonies taking place shortly beforehand with a 1:30 p.m. start to the presentatio for five outgoing Sharks: Brady Acker, Bryan Diaz, Andrew Labosky, Joe Smeton and JP Williams.
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