DELAND, Fla. (May 19, 2026) – The University of North Alabama baseball team travels for its second Atlantic Sun Conference postseason tournament appearance in as many years to square off with No. 5 Jacksonville in DeLand, Fla. at Melching Field at Conrad Park at 1 p.m. on Wednesday.
This will be a single elimination round game. The winner will advance to double elimination play on Thursday at 10 a.m. against top-seeded North Florida.
Live stats will be available via StatBroadcast. The game will be streamed on ESPN+. The "Voice of the Lions" Benjamin Ray and his partner Grant Wakefield, alongside producer Bradyn Rogers, will provide fans the hometown call through Roar Lions Productions. All links can be found on RoarLions.com.
North Alabama vs. #5 Jacksonville
Wednesday, May 20, 2026
1 p.m.
ESPN+ | Listen | Bracket | Info
NOTES
THE RUNDOWN: North Alabama swept Austin Peay for the second time this season with an 8-4 win this past Saturday at Mike D. Lane Field at Bank Independent Stadium. With this win, and the series win for Lipscomb, North Alabama earned a share of the Atlantic Sun Conference Gold Division Championship. This is the first time since 2005 that UNA has earned a regular season or division conference title designation. The Lions finish the regular season with the most wins at the Division I level with 28, as well as the most since 2018. The team elevated their conference play with 19 wins this season, another new single season high for the Division I era. UNA matched their total series wins from a season ago but swept five opponents this season — another Division I era high. With today's win, the Lions locked in their first winning record in a Division I regular season.
SERIES HISTORY: This will be the ninth all-time meeting between the two programs dating back to 2019. Jacksonville leads the series 5-3.The Lions and Dolphins have only met during UNA's Division I era — all in the state of Florida. Two series have been played with one in 2019 and one in 2024. The Lions took the first two games in 2019 and took one in the 2024 series with the final game going to a 10th inning as Jacksonville won 5-4. Last season, these two met twice in the ASUN Tournament. Jacksonville was the Graphite Division's No. 2 seed and took game one between the pair, 5-1, behind four runs in the sixth and seventh innings. After UNA won its first ASUN Postseason game against North Florida, 14-11, the team returned to play Jacksonville again. JU walked it off the ninth inning to win 3-2 and move on in the tournament.
SCOUTING THE DOLPHINS: Jacksonville finished with a 29-24 overall record and 16-14 in conference play. JU is seventh in the ASUN as a team in batting (.265), third in pitching (4.75 ERA) and eighth in fielding (.968). If one were to look at conference-only statistics, Jacksonville would be ninth and North Alabama would be third in batting average — .263 to .297. The Dolphins are third in conference play pitching with a 4.51 ERA. Jacksonville has played ranked opponents such as UCF, Florida and Florida State this season, going 3-3 in those games with a season sweep of Florida. JU is coming off a series win over FGCU to end the regular season. The Dolphins are led by second baseman Roger Vergara; he leads in batting average (.329) and ranks second in slugging percentage (.451), hits (70) and RBIs (43). Jacksonville is coming off a dominant win over Austin Peay in the first round, 7-1.
PARTY LIKE IT'S 2005: After the sweep of Austin Peay this past Saturday, North Alabama earned a share of the ASUN Gold Division Title. This is the first time since 2005 that the Lions have earned a division or regular season title. UNA has 10 overall titles with eight being divisional and two being the 1992 and 1993 regular season titles in the Gulf South conference. In 1984, the Lions achieved the first GSC Divisional title in school history. The team was named North Division champs in 1984 and West Division Champs in 1987 and 1990. After the most recent regular season championship in 1993, North Alabama earned five East Division Championships in 1994, 1995, 1997, 2002 and 2005.
HEAD BALL COACH: North Alabama has leveled up its overall and conference win totals for the fourth consecutive season. Head coach Jad Prachniak took over during the 2022 offseason, four years ago and has been a staple of excellence through recruiting, coaching, program building and team chemistry which has translated to wins over the seasons. In his first season in 2023, the Lions won 14 games with eight conference wins. In 2026, North Alabama capped off an overall win total of 28 and 19 conference wins through the regular season. Since day one, Prachniak has been on the attack, delivering UNA back-to-back 20-plus win seasons and ASUN Tournament appearances.
SWINGING THE BIG STICK: North Alabama has 82 total home runs to close the regular season. The team broke the all-time home run record set in 1999 through 57 games at 63 with their 64th home run coming in just the 43rd game of the season. The Lions have five players with double-digit home runs this season in Nash Rippen (17), Dylan Coleman (16), Wes Walker (13), Petey Craska (12) and Will Millard (10). The team had not had two players with double-digit home runs in the same season since Josh Willingham (13) and Corey Murks (10) did it in 2000. Rippen is currently tied for the all-time record which was set by Mike Burns in 1989. Coleman surpassed the former Division I record of 15 set by Gehrig Frei in 2024; the designated hitter now sits behind Rippen in the category. Craska had three home runs against Bellarmine on Friday, May 1, which tied the all-time single game record set by Eddie Serrano in 1986.
BAD BOY BATS: A season ago, the Lions set new highs in a slew of pitching categories at the Division I level. This season, it was the offense's turn to set new single-season team highs. The bats led UNA to breaking records for at-bats (1,821), runs (378), hits (500), doubles (100), home runs (82), RBIs (356), walks (267), hit by pitch (75) and total bases (862). If current measures hold, the Lions can break records for batting average (.275), slugging (.473) and on-base percentage (.386).
UP NEXT: If the Lions win the single elimination game on Wednesday, they will move on to face No. 1 seed North Florida on Thursday, May 21 at 9 a.m. CT. The teams that make it to Thursday move into the double elimination bracket.
For more information on North Alabama Athletics, visit www.roarlions.com and follow UNA Athletics on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
