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Mistakes plague UNA baseball in loss to Stetson - Times Daily

FLORENCE — The night was not off to a good start when North Alabama starting pitcher Chase Best grabbed his bicep in the first inning, seemingly in pain.

After a talk with the staff, Best left the game in the middle of the fourth Stetson plate appearance. A parade of Lion relievers could not keep the hosts in the game, and UNA (4-20, 0-4 ASUN) lost 12-1.

Through an understandably challenging transition into Division I baseball, North Alabama baseball coach Mike Keehn has been patient as his team has worked through good moments and bad against tough competition.

But he has less patience for players not performing to the program’s standards regardless of competition, and that clearly bothered him Friday night.

UNA used six pitchers in relief of Best, and only Kaleb Barnes, Keegan Foge and Colton Teal weren’t charged with an earned run.

“Not much you can do about (the Best injury), but the other guys have got to step up and do much better,” Keehn said.

Though Stetson (11-14, 1-0 ASUN) is a different animal than the Alabama State team UNA’s pitchers dominated on Tuesday, Keehn was discouraged to see the Lions walk eight Stetson batters and hit two more. Garret Gillum, Josh Stillman, Barnes and Austin Nichols each allowed two free passes.

“To me that’s what was just sloppy. It was embarrassing to see how well we’d done in the pitching and then everybody came in and didn’t pick (Best) up,” Keehn said. “That’s what I talked to them about there. That’s their responsibility. When a guy comes out of the game unexpectedly then the other guys need to pick him up.

“And we didn’t pick him up. We made things worse.”

Keehn said he doesn’t think Best’s arm injury is anything major.

“Obviously we don’t take any chances,” Keehn said.

Stetson pounced for at least one run in each of the first five innings and then three more in the seventh. Four batters in the Hatters’ starting lineup, and a couple others who came off the bench, appeared in the NCAA Super Regional last year, so it’s not as though UNA struggled against a subpar ASUN team.

Keehn did not think the Lions were intimidated by Stetson. But for whatever reason, the team was not at its best.

“We missed a couple cutoffs and didn’t do the little things that we work on every day, and that’s the thing I’m more disappointed in,” Keehn said. “It’s just playing the game right, and we didn’t play the game right. We (made) too many mistakes, we gave them too many free bases, and everybody is good enough to do something there if you give (them) 10 free bases. Anybody’s going to beat you bad doing that.”

Stetson pitcher Chris Gonzalez threw a complete game. UNA’s lone run came in the third inning when Davis Elliott doubled to left and advanced to third when the left fielder struggled to retrieve the ball. Landon Langston, the freshman catcher from Florence High, brought Elliott in for an RBI groundout.

Senior shortstop Peyton Sockwell was 2 for 4. Ben Kiefer, Tate Mathis and Colt Chrestman each had one hit.

UNA’s game today was moved up to 1 p.m. Junior righthander Kyle Moore, who has a 7.82 ERA over two starts and three relief appearances this year, will start for the Lions.

Jacob Laws is slated to start Sunday’s noon game.



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