TAMPA — The No. 4-seeded Valdosta State baseball team fell to No. 5-seed Nova Southeastern 11-3 Thursday evening in its first game of the NCAA D II South Region Tournament at the University of Tampa.
The Blazers will face No. 8 Spring Hill College in an elimination gameon Friday, at 11 a.m.
VSU fell to 30-15 on the year, while NSU improved to 35-15.
Nova Southeastern got on board in the third inning with three runs across the plate and added one in the fifth to bring the score to 4-0.
The Blazers left two runners on in the fifth from a single by sophomore Jacob Harper and a single from junior David Crawford, but could not plate any runs and ended the inning with a fly out to right field.
The Sharks then had a huge sixth inning with six runs crossing home plate before added two in the eighth, 11-0.
The Valdosta State offense got on board in the ninth inning with a two-run home run by junior Ryan Romano that scored junior Bryson Gandy who reached on a double to left center and a solo home run from redshirt junior Ralph Morla Jr., but it was not enough as the Sharks took the game 11-3.
The Blazers finished with eight hits, three RBI, one double, two home runs, and one free pass. Leading the Valdosta State offense were Gandy and Crawford. Gandy went 2-4 at the dish with one double and one run scored while Crawford went 2-3.
Starting on the mound for the Blazers was senior Elijah Gill.
He threw 4.2 innings and fell to 8-2 on the year. Gill tallied three strikeouts and gave up five hits and three earned runs on four runs scored. Also throwing for Valdosta State was sophomore JJ Finn, junior Zach Henderson, junior Jake Janata, and sophomore Scott Curran.
