Tag: North Florida Ospreys

Fabian’s two home runs lift Florida over UNF

The Gators scored four runs in the fifth to secure back-to-back midweek wins over UNF, beating the Ospreys 8-3.

The Gators returned to Gainesville on Wednesday night for a rematch with North Florida after taking a 9-6 win over the Ospreys in Jacksonville on Tuesday night. UNF once again gave Florida a tough midweek game, but coach Kevin O’Sullivan’s squad held on for an 8-3 win.

The game had the makings of a pitching duel early on, but UF’s bats eventually started to catch on in the latter part of the game. North Florida (1-4) tried to make it competitive with a small rally, but the Gators (3-2), managed to stave it off.

Freshman pitcher Chase Centala took the mound for Florida after a rough first appearance in the opening series, and he was much better in outing No. 2. He only let up one hit in the first two innings, and though he found himself in some danger in the third when Aidan Sweatt singled and then advanced to second and third off a fielding error and subsequent passed ball, he strung together two straight strikeouts to get out of the inning.

In Centala’s four innings pitched, he allowed four hits and no runs with no strikeouts. But UF’s lineup didn’t do him many favors in that span. It stranded two batters in the first inning and went three-up, three-down in the second. The third inning saw Jud Fabian break the scoreless tie with a home run to put the Gators up 1-0, but they couldn’t get anything else going.

The fourth was more of the same, with UNF pitcher Max McKinley retiring the side cleanly. McKinley was fantastic in the first four innings aside from the homer, giving up just two hits. But he started to lose control in the fifth.

The Gators had pulled Centala for Trey Van Der Weide at the top of the inning, who pitched a clean frame. McKinley allowed a single from Kendrick Calilao to lead off the bottom of the inning, and after an error and a single from Jordan Carrion, the bases were loaded for Florida. Jacob Young hit a sacrifice fly to score Calilao, and then Fabian cleaned up the bases with his second homer of the day to put Florida up 5-0.

McKinley was pulled in favor of Rafael Santos, who avoided further damage in the frame.

Van Der Weide struggled a bit in the sixth. He gave up a single and two walks to load the bases, and a double from Robbie Scott scored three runs. He gave up another hit with two outs, but a throwout at home managed to end the inning with Florida’s lead cut to just two runs.

It quickly stretched its lead again. After three singles in a row to lead off the bottom of the sixth, UNF pulled Santos for Dominick Madonna. He managed to get an out, but then he walked Calilao home. A sacrifice from Nathan Hickey added one more run to push Florida’s lead to 7-3.

UF’s bullpen stepped up after that. Christian Scott entered the game in the seventh and got three-straight batters out, while a walk from Josh Rivera and a single from Sterlin Thompson allowed Calilao to add another run on a sac-fly.

After an excellent inning of work from Scott, the Gators went to true freshman Timmy Manning, making his first appearance, to close things out. He didn’t allow any runners to reach base in the eighth, and despite giving up a single in the ninth, the Ospreys couldn’t add any runs.

Florida will be back in action this weekend at home for a three-game series against Samford. First pitch for the opening game on Friday is set for 6:30 p.m. EST with Tommy Mace expected to make his second start of the season.

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Florida baseball takes down UNF in midweek matchup

The Ospreys attempted a ninth-inning rally, but unlike in the weekend series against Miami, Florida managed to hang on for the win.

The Gators bounced back nicely from losing their opening series of the season to Miami. Facing North Florida in Jacksonville on Tuesday night, Florida (2-2) earned a 9-6 win, staving off a late push from the Ospreys (1-3).

UF’s lineup, which shined throughout the series last weekend, was solid once again, and it made things difficult for UNF pitcher Ethan Jones early in the game. The Gators rattled off three-straight hits to open the game, and though North Florida was able to throw Jacob Young at out home, a sacrifice fly from Jordan Butler managed to score a run.

Starting for UF was Garrett Milchin, who pitched in his first real game in nearly four years after undergoing back-to-back Tommy John surgeries. He started out hot with two strikeouts, but he allowed a pair of hits and a walk after that. The Ospreys scored off a fielding error later in the inning, and though the run wasn’t charged against Milchin, the game was tied.

Coach Kevin O’Sullivan chose to keep Milchin’s pitch count low, and he was pulled after just two innings, allowing three hits and no earned runs with three strikeouts.

Jones escaped the second inning without allowing additional runs, but singles from Nate Hickey and Butler brought another run home, and he was pulled after 2 1/3 for Eddie Miller.

Miller was more comfortable, but he couldn’t get out of the jam, as a triple from Colby Halter scored three more runs to push Florida’s lead to 5-1 before the end of the inning.

Butler came in at pitcher in the bottom of the third, and he tossed clean innings in the third and fourth. But in the fifth, he gave up a homer to Abraham Sequera, and a sacrifice fly later in the inning scored another run to cut UF’s lead to 5-3.

The Gators got some insurance in the seventh when a fielder’s choice from Halter scored another run, and Jacob Young hit a two-RBI double to put Florida up 8-3 later in the inning. They added one more in the ninth with an RBI single from Jud Fabian.

The Ospreys took notes from Miami over the weekend, attempting a ninth-inning comeback of their own. Ben Specht gave up an RBI triple and two-run homer on back-to-back at-bats, and Florida’s lead was cut to just three runs. But two flyouts ended the rally, and UF avoided a third-straight loss.

The Gators take on UNF again on Wednesday night, this time in Gainesville. First pitch for Florida’s second midweek game is set for 6 p.m. EST.

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North Florida, freshman Nick Gabrelcik, pass a tough test with Sea Best Invitational wins

North Florida, led by freshman Nick Gabrelcik, passed yet another early-season test with a win at the Sea Best Invitational.

The University of North Florida golf team keeps passing important tests early in the season.

Last week at the Timuquana Collegiate, the Ospreys proved they could come from behind in a birdie-fest, posting the low team score of the final round and tying for fourth, four shots out of a playoff with Florida and Liberty.

On Monday, UNF jumped out to a big lead in the first 36 holes of the Sea Best Invitational, under brutally cold conditions at the TPC Sawgrass Dye’s Valley.

On Tuesday, the Ospreys proved they could play with the lead, and after a 19-shot spread at the turn dipped to nine shots over Liberty with four holes to play, Nick Gabrelcik, Nick Infanti and Cody Carroll all birdied the par-4 15th hole and UNF went on to win by 12 shots over Liberty and Duke at 21 over.

It was the Ospreys’ first team title since the 2019 ASUN Championship and the first time they have won the Sea Best, hosted by cross-town rival Jacksonville University.

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Gabrelcik supplied the frosting on another cold, windy day when he shot 68 to win the individual championship at 3 under, one shot clear of Easton Paxton (72) of N.C. State and three shots over Adrien Pendaries of Duke (71).

“All three rounds were really hard and we knew, teeing off today, that pars were going to be good scores,” said UNF coach Scott Schroeder. “We played pretty steady. There were a few glitches at the end but generally speaking, it was pretty steady for everybody, which is all you really wanted.”

Gabrelcik, of Trinity, Florida, has tied for fourth and won in his first two college starts. When Paxton finished his round, Gabrelcik had seven holes left, and he played them bogey-free, at 2-under, with a 35-foot birdie putt at No. 12, a 4-footer at No. 15 and a testy two-putt for par from 60 feet at No. 17.

“I’m not going to lie … that was the time I was the most nervous, hoping to lag that putt up there close,” Gabrelcik said.

He cozied it up to 2 feet and tapped in.

Needing a par to win at the last, Gabrelcik split the fairway at No. 18, hit a pitching wedge to within 10 feet, and safely two-putted.

“I felt good going into this week but the conditions were very tough,” he said. “I’ve played when it’s been this cold before, and I’ve played when it’s been this windy, but never both at the same time. I just worked my ball around well.”

Rankings: Men’s team | Men’s individual
More: All the latest college news on the Road to Grayhawk

Gabrelcik became the first UNF individual champion since Jordan Batchelor in the 2019 ASUN Championship and the first freshman to win for the Ospreys since Joey Petronio at the 2012 Gary Koch Invitational at Old Memorial Golf Club in Tampa.

UNF had four players among the top-23, with Infanti (72) finishing 13th at 9 over, Robbie Higgins (77) tying for 14th at 10 over and Cody Carroll (76) tying for 23rd at 12 over.

Campbell finished fourth at 42 over, N.C. State fifth at 44 over and Jacksonville and Charlotte tied for sixth at 45 over.

JU was led by a 10th-place finish by Michael Sakane (76) at 6 over. Joey Sullivan birdied three of his first five holes and matched Gabrelcik’s 68 to tie for 14th at 10 over.

The Ospreys’ quick start has come with only one senior in the starting lineup and without the benefit of a fall season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Schroeder said there’s still room for improvement.

“I knew we had a chance to be pretty good but I didn’t know exactly how good we’d be,” he said. “We played pretty good but didn’t putt it great. We had 20 three-putts this week. If we can clean some of that stuff up, it’s going to be really fun this spring.”

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University of North Florida grabs big lead on a long, chilly day at Dye’s Valley

A marathon day at the Sea Best Invitational required much patience and concentration from the field at TPC Sawgrass Dye’s Valley Course.

Monday’s marathon day at the Sea Best Invitational required as much patience and concentration as the field of 75 players at the TPC Sawgrass Dye’s Valley Course could muster.

When it was over – and the temperature had dipped into the mid-40s with the approaching dusk – one of the youngest teams in the field did the best job of managing the conditions.

University of North Florida freshmen Nick Gabrelcik and Robbie Higgins posted top-10 scores and the two other players who scored finished among the top-18 as the Ospreys took a 13-shot lead over Duke and Liberty at 11-over-par 571.

Charlotte is in fourth at 25 over, N.C. State fifth at 26 over and host Jacksonville University is sixth at 27 over. The final round will be Tuesday, and there’s good news and bad news.

The bad news is it will be even colder on Tuesday, with a forecast high of 52 degrees and more Northeast wind.

Scores: Sea Best Invitational

The good news is the field will only have 18 holes to play.

“This place is tough as it is, much less this sort of weather,” said UNF junior Cody Carroll of the Valley Course, after he shot 71 in the second round to tie for 13th at 6-over.

Gabrelcik opened with a 4-under 66 and held the lead for most of the second round until he finished bogey-double bogey to fall into a tie for second at 1-under 139, three shots behind N.C. State’s Easton Paxton (68-68—136).

Gabrelcik is tied with Adrien Pendaries of Duke (70-69), Kiernan Vincent of Liberty (68-71) and two individual competitors, Fred Biondi of the University of Florida (71-68) and Brady Madsen of Florida Gulf Coast (69-70).

Higgins (69-74—143) is tied for eighth. The only senior in the UNF lineup, Nick Infanti (74-73—147) is tied for 18th.

Ospreys coach Scott Schroeder was pleased with his team’s performance – and for showing it can contend on a difficult course under rugged conditions, after they were in the mix last week in the Timuquana Collegiate, when the temperatures were in the high-70s and scoring was low.

“The weather was totally different from last week and they showed me they know how to grind a little bit more on a tough course, on a tough day,” he said. “It was really solid.”

Concentration and patience – or at least as strong an attempt as could be mustered – were the orders of the day. Players were bundled up, every conceivable kind of cold-weather apparel was in use and since both rounds were shotgun starts, they couldn’t even huddle inside the clubhouse to warm up for a few minutes between rounds.

“You have to keep your focus but that’s impossible for more than eight hours on a day like this,” said Jacksonville’s Michael Sakane, who matched the low score of the second round with a 68 and finished solo seventh to lead the Dolphins at 1-over 141. “There have to be moments where you don’t think about golf, then right before you hit the shot, start concentrating.”

Carroll offered himself as an example of the on-again, off-again nature of trying to play golf in Florida in weather better suited to outdoor hockey.

After a first-round 75 that included a triple-bogey, followed by a bogey on a par-5, Carroll’s second-round 71 included four birdies during a six-hole stretch.

“It’s easy to make a lot of loose decisions and not commit to shots,” he said.

Easton was the only player to put together two sub-par rounds and had one sparkling stretch in his second tour around the Valley when he birdied four holes in a row, Nos. 11, 12, 13 and 14.

Biondi one of the most bizarre days, with nine birdies, two bogeys and three doubles. Vincent turned in a card for the second round that had seven birdies, one double and one triple.

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College golf: Parent wants to stage tournament for Jacksonville-area collegians

Mark Berman, a college golf parent, wants to give college players in the Jacksonville, Florida, area one last chance at competition.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Mark Berman doesn’t know when. But he has a good idea of where and a better one of who’s on board.

Berman, a media consultant and the father of Jacksonville University senior women’s golfer Hannah Berman, wants to give all college golfers in the Jacksonville area something they lost this spring due to the shutdown of college sports because of the coronavirus.

When normalcy returns, he wants them to have one more chance to play golf not only with their teammates but with all of the men’s and women’s college programs in the area from JU, the University of North Florida and Flagler College, an NCAA Division II school in St. Augustine.

Berman’s idea is to invite every player on those rosters – there are 48 in all – to compete in an 18-hole tournament with an undetermined format.

How the strokes are counted isn’t important, he said.

“These kids didn’t have any finality, any closure to the season – especially the seniors [there are nine on the six rosters],” he said. “I know there are bigger issues in the world and this all seems to far away right now but when things settle down and we get back to something close to normal, I’d like to give them the chance to walk up an 18th fairway, with their teammates waiting behind the green for them to putt out.”

The seniors on those teams are Berman for the JU women, Eduardo Carrette and Thomas Thurloway for the JU men; Sydney Shrader, Teresa Conroy and Natalia Riverao for the UNF women; Michael Mattiace for the UNF men; and Kim Jakobs for the Flagler women.

The good news is that the seniors are likely to have one more year of eligibility if the NCAA grants that to all spring sports athletes, as expected.

It remains open how many of those seniors will actually return. They would still have to maintain a full-time academic schedule to be eligible, which means most would have to take masters courses since they were on target to graduate this spring.

Those seniors also aren’t getting full scholarships in golf so it might not work financially for them to return to school for another year. NCAA Division I men’s coaches have to divide 4.5 scholarships among their players and women’s coaches get six, among rosters that are between seven and 10 student-athletes.

“It’s still a great idea,” said UNF men’s coach Scott Schroeder. “The only thing is that the college coaches can’t have anything to do with it, by NCAA rules. But if others want to pick this up, I’m all for it.”

Berman also said Jacksonville-area products who went elsewhere to play college golf – such as Brandon Mancheno (Auburn), Auston Kim (Vanderbilt), Brett Schell (Ole Miss), Lauren Waidner (Florida), Ramya Meenakshiundaram (South Florida) and Dragon Theam (Army) – would be welcome.

Berman said he is aware that golf is one of a number of college teams that were impacted by the closures. But he said the resources exist to make a golf event happen – any number of facilities and several local governing bodies to help with operating the event.

Berman sent an email to a handful of area golf leaders and it took less than a day for some of them to step up.

Bruce Mohler, director of golf for the Jacksonville Beach Golf Club, has offered the use of the city-owned course. Jack Aschenbach, a member of the Northern Chapter PGA and director of the North Florida Junior Foundation, offered his expertise. So did Randy Nader, president of the Jacksonville Area Golf Association.

“It’s a tremendous idea,” Aschenbach said. “I worked with a lot of these kids in junior golf and they put in a lot of years to get to this point in college, with so many more chances to showcase themselves. It’s a way to reward them for doing what they’ve done in trying to achieve their dreams. I know there’s so much uncertainty right now but maybe now is the best time to plan it.”

How much did the players lose? The UNF men’s team had four tournaments canceled, including The Hayt, an invitational the Ospreys have hosted for the last 28 years.

All of the other college programs had three tournaments left, including their conference championships. And the Flagler men and women would have both defended their team titles at the Peach Belt Conference tournament at the Slammer & Squire.

Berman said the format could be as simple as stroke play or perhaps a mixed-team event, with a male college player paired with a female player, either from the same school or different schools.

He also is thinking about the possibility of a “College Am,” with two adult players paired with two college players, with any proceeds going to area golf course staff who were impacted by layoffs.

“Everything is very much in the discussion phase, obviously,” Berman said.

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