TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (March 20) - The Florida A&M Baseball team dropped a tough, 5-2 decision to the University of North Florida, here Wednesday, afternoon at Moore-Kittles Field in a non-conference matchup.
FAMU tallied 11 hits in the contest, after starting the contest with two hits after four complete innings of play, with Reginald Grant finishing with a team high three hits, followed by both Bennie Robinson and Marlon Gibbs with two hits each.
UNF had three Ospreys to finish with three hits each in Paul Karmeris and Corey Bass as UNF tallied a game high 13 hits in the contest.
Christopher Priestley received the loss for the Rattlers as he got the start, allowing nine hits, four earned runs and striking out two in five and one-third innings of work, while Nick Allbritton picked up the win for the Ospreys as he gave up five hits, two earned runs and striking out three in five innings of work. Spencer Herrmann in relief picked up his first save of the season for the Ospreys.
UNF took the early 1-0 lead as they scored a run in the top of the third on a Corey Bass double to left center, scoring Herrmann.
The Ospreys picked up another run in the top of the fifth as Drew Weeks singled to center field scoring Joe Wielbruda, giving UNF a 2-0 lead after four and one-half complete innings of play.
FAMU tied the contest at 2-2 in the bottom of the fifth as both Kendall Weeks and Garrett Johnson scoring in the inning with Weeks scoring wild pitch and Johnson scoring on a Grant single up the middle.
UNF would break the tie and get the win in the top of the sixth as both Kyle Brooks and Paul Karmeris scored on a Bass double and then Bass would score on a Wielbruda double down the left field line, for the 5-2 finale.
With the win UNF’s raises their record to 16-7 on the season, while FAMU lowers their record to 1-21 in the season.
The Rattlers will return to action on Friday, March 22 as they will travel to Durham, N.C., to take on North Carolina Central in a three-game Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference series with a doubleheader scheduled for Friday and a single game set for Saturday, March 23 at Durham Athletic Park with start time set for 1 p.m. both days.
This conference series was originally set for Saturday and Sunday, but was pushed up a day, due to heavy rain forecast for Sunday, March 24. The weather forecast for Sunday in the Durham area is calling for heavy rains and the temperatures to drop below 40 degrees forcing game officials to move the series up a day in order to get the series in.
