LAKELAND, Fla. - The No. 10 Florida Southern College baseball team had its season come to a close after an 8-3 loss to No. 20 University of West Florida in the NCAA DII South Region #2 title game.
The Moccasins (38-16-1) won the day's first game with a 16-7 win over Delta State University in an elimination round before the 8-3 loss to the Argonauts (37-19) tonight to end the NCAA tournament run.
GAME 1: Florida Southern 16, Delta State 7
In the first game of the day, the Mocs opened with a big 8-0 run through five innings in the elimination game. Florida Southern did not score in the first inning but had two runs in the second on an RBI double by
Rohsean Riley and a bases-loaded walk for the 2-0 score. In the third inning, Riley had a sac fly, followed by a costly error by the Statesmen to score another three runs, 5-0. FSC continued to score with an RBI by
Grant Thoroman and another error that made it seven unanswered. A sac fly by
Brady Doorey made it an 8-0 game, all before DSU could score.
The bottom of the fifth was productive for the Statesmen, with four runs scored to cut the deficit in half. Soper had a three-run homer and a wild pitch scored the runs, though FSC answered with a single run in the sixth to keep the advantage. DSU scored another three in the sixth, including the second homer for Soper, to get within two runs, 9-7, through six innings. Neither team scored in the seventh inning, followed by five runs by FSC in the eighth, including a three-run homer by
Ahmad Fitts. FSC added another couple of runs in the ninth inning, including a solo homer by Thoroman for the 16-7 final.
Logan Adams started the game for FSC, going 4.2 innings, and was relieved by
BJ Rivera, who was credited with the win.
Wyatt Clark finished the game with 3.1 innings pitched, two hits, and no runs scored to earn the save.
GAME 2: West Florida 8, Florida Southern 3
The bracket title game between these two teams opened with a 2-0 lead by the Argos with solo runs in the second and third innings. The Mocs then took the lead with three runs in the fifth inning on RBI hits by
Cory Filley, Jevin Relaford, and Thoroman. UWF responded with six runs in the bottom half of the fifth inning for an 8-3 lead. That was the final runs scored of the game as West Florida's Grant Adams took the win, striking out six Mocs and allowing just four hits.
Tanner Rollyson had the start for FSC, going four innings, later relieved by
Casey O'Dell in the fifth inning.
Robert Tracy III took the final 3.1 innings, keeping UWF scoreless, though the offense struggled, keeping the Argos in control to win 8-3 and advance to Super Regionals.
The Mocs finished the season with 38 wins, the most since 2018 when FSC went 45-11-1 and third place at the NCAA DII Championships.
Rick O'Dette, in his first year with the Mocs, led the team to a top 25 ranking for a majority of the season, ranked as high as No. 3 in the ABCA DII Poll. FSC had eight All-Sunshine State Conference winners and one NCBWA All-South Region winner in 2025.
