This was not the greatest way to end the tournament for UNF, but it was a pretty darned good tournament showing for them to just be in the finals. Battling from behind late against Lipscomb and getting some measure of revenge against cross-town rival JU, the pitching was just a bit worn down. 

JU will still get an NCAA tournament bid, they may have to travel a bit further now. Stetson was the class of the conference and it showed. Congratulations to them. 

from Jacksonville.com
https://www-jacksonville-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/www.jacksonville.com/sports/20180526/stetsons-senger-denies-unf-in-asun-baseball-final

Stetson's Senger denies UNF in ASUN baseball final - Sports - The Florida Times-Union - Jacksonville, FL

By Clayton Freeman
May 22 at 11:01 AMStetson's Senger denies UNF in ASUN baseball final

Posted May 26, 2018 at 5:39 PM

Updated May 26, 2018 at 5:53 PMStetson center fielder Jacob Koos (1) slides around the tag of UNF catcher Rey Gonzalez to score on Eric Foggo's two-run single in the first inning of Saturday's Atlantic Sun baseball championship. [Clayton Freeman/Florida Times-Union]▲

Only one person at the University of North Florida's Harmon Stadium saw faults in the pitching of Stetson's Mitchell Senger Saturday afternoon, and that was Mitchell Senger.
"I felt like every time I left one down the middle, which felt like pretty frequently, the defense made a play," he said.

For everyone else, particularly the host Ospreys, there was just one word to describe the freshman starter.

Unhittable.

Fourth-seeded UNF's run in the Atlantic Sun Conference tournament ended in a 6-0 championship game loss to Stetson and their freshman pitcher, who fired a three-hit shutout to bring the Hatters their second ASUN title in three years.

The red-hot Hatters (45-11), winners of a national-best 15 consecutive games, earned the ASUN's automatic bid to the NCAA regionals while further demonstrating a time-honored principle of playoff baseball.

As Stetson coach Steve Trimper said, "One pitcher can shut you down."

On Saturday, it was UNF's turn.

In 117 pitches and nine innings, Senger allowed only five baserunners and struck out six Ospreys. UNF never got a runner as far as third base and only twice reached second base, in the second and ninth innings.

"Fastball, changeup, two curveballs, everything was where he wanted them today," UNF coach Tim Parenton said.

The lefty mowed down the Ospreys (28-28) and retired 13 straight batters from the second through the sixth, keeping the ball on the ground - a mammoth foul ball by Chris Matthias in the fifth was the major exception. Hatters' infielders Kyle Ball and Jonathan Meola scooped up those grounders again and again.

"We put the ball in play off him pretty good, but the ball just didn't fall where we needed it to," UNF center fielder Tanner Murphy said.

By contrast, Stetson struck fast against the Ospreys' depleted staff, which had top-four starters Frank German, Austin Drury, Brad Deppermann and Ethan Michaelis all out of action after pitching in the last three days.

The Hatters pounded the baseball off UNF starter Cooper Bradford, who only lasted two-thirds of an inning before getting rocked from the mound by a Stetson lineup that sent all nine batters to the plate.

Parenton pointed to Andrew MacNeil's leadoff infield single as the moment that started the Ospreys' woe in an inning where the misery built by the minute.

"The big play of the game was the first chopper, the slow, slow roller where their guy busts down the line and gets [the hit]," Parenton said. "That gets their momentum going right off the bat."

Then came an RBI double from Mike Spooner, a hit batsman, a two-RBI single by Eric Foggo, a blooper over the infield and a double down the line by Austin Hale to drive in two more, plunging the Ospreys into a five-run hole just 25 minutes after the opening pitch.

"We've been really timid sometimes at the plate," Hale said. "I think, honestly, we were really aggressive and we put pressure on them."

By the time UNF's Matt Vaka arrived in the second to put out the fire, staying on the mound through 4.2 innings of scoreless relief, the damage was done.

The Ospreys almost didn't make it to Saturday in the first place.

They needed a comeback from three runs down to beat Lipscomb 7-6 Friday afternoon in an elimination game, then knocked out rival Jacksonville University 6-2 in Friday's late game. First baseman Blake Voyles helped the Ospreys to victory with a three-run double.
UNF's season is done, while JU will await the NCAA selection committee's announcement Monday. Baseball America most recently projected the Dolphins as a No. 2 seed in the Tallahassee Regional, while D1Baseball.com forecast them as a No. 2 seed bound for Gainesville.

UNF's Voyles and German earned spots on the ASUN all-tournament team, along with JU's Angel Camacho, Scott Dubrule and Ruben Someillan. Stetson first baseman Foggo was named the tournament's most valuable player, going 6 for 15 with four runs batted in, one of five Hatters on the squad.

"Are we happy? No, we got beat. We wanted to win the championship, that's what we're here for, to win championships," Parenton said. "But did they battle every pitch? Yes. We battled to the end."

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