Florida State College at Jacksonville opened up the 2024 campaign by taking the short trip down I-95 to battle with the Daytona State College Falcons (DSC). DSC took both games, 6-1 and 6-5, on a sunny Friday afternoon. The day was originally scheduled to be a single 9-inning game, but was moved to be a doubleheader due to weather in the forecast on Saturday.

Daytona State 6, FSCJ 1

Game 1 was the short game of the day, as it was a 7-inning affair. The game started as a pitchers dual, with Daytona finally pushing runs across in the bottom of the 3^rd to take a 2-0 lead. FSCJ answered back with a run of their own to cut the deficit in half on a Matt Retamoza RBI single, scoring Carson Womer. The Falcons tacked on two runs apiece in the 5^th and 6^th innings to make the final 6-1 in favor of the home team. Noah Wood led the BlueWave at the plate with two hits. Womer, Retamoza, Aidan Hampton, and Ashton Nugent also collected a hit. Brady Ellison (0-1) took the loss on the mound as the starter, going 2.0 innings, allowing 2 runs on 1 hit and 4 walks, striking out 4. Dylan Cope was the highlight in relief, throwing 1.2 scoreless innings, striking out 1 and walking 0.

Daytona State 6, FSCJ 5 (10)

Game 2 needed extra innings to determine a winner, as the two teams dualed into the night. Daytona took the early lead on an RBI sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 1^st. FSCJ answered right back with a run of their own in the top of the 2^nd inning on a Dylan Greene sacrifice fly of their own. The game held at 1-1 until the bottom of the 5^th when DSC was able to put up 2 runs to stretch the lead to 3-1. FSCJ answered back once again the very next inning on a two-out RBI double by Ashton Nugent, scoring Matt Retamoza. The back and forth battle continued with another Daytona run in the bottom of the 6^th, before the BlueWave put up 1 run in the 7^th (Billy Girgis RBI groundout) and 2 runs in the 8^th (bases loaded walks by Alex Monile and Isaac Newman) to take the lead 5-4. DSC tied the game at 5-apiece to send the game into extra innings, where they were able to walk it off 6-5 on a fly ball single.

What's Next?

FSCJ will play host to Edward Waters University in an exhibition game on Tuesday, January 30^th, at 2:00 PM. Hillsborough Community College will then travel to North Jacksonville to visit the BlueWave for a three game series on Friday, February 2 and Saturday, February 3.