Tampa Shows No Mercy in Sweep of Nova Southeastern

Box score

Ft. LAUDERDALE, Fla. - The #2 University of Tampa Spartans (32-6, 10-2) took both games of a Sunshine State Conference double header over #24 Nova Southeastern (28-12, 4-8) with the scores 19-7 and 11-0.

In the first of two games, Tampa scored first in the second inning, as Paul Cruz scored on Junior Mejia's single to left. The Spartans took a 1-0 lead but left three runners stranded ending an opportunity to tack on more runs.

The Sharks erased their one run deficit and turned it into a two run lead after they scored three in the bottom of the second. Brayan Valencia, Jimmy Sposa and Eric McCans each had RBI hits in the inning.

Back-to-back doubles off the bats off Craig Corrado and Roberto Mena pulled the Spartans within a run in the third.

Valencia drove in two more run in the bottom of the third with a double to right center. His two RBI along with a Matt Mindick's run on a wild pitch gave Nova Southeastern a 6-2 lead.

With two outs in the fourth Ryan Kennedy and Jose Jimenez drew walks and they were followed by Corrado who reached on a hit by a pitch, loading the bases for Mena. And for the second time this season Mena blasted a grand slam, tying the contest at six.

Kennedy put the Spartans back on top in fifth with a two-out three-run homerun to right, his second of the series and his conference leading 12th overall.

Sposa's double in the bottom of the fifth drove in J.D. Martinez to close Tampa's lead to 9-7.

The Spartans batted around in the sixth as they added six runs on three hits and four walks to put the game out of reach with a 15-7 advantage.

Tampa scored four more runs over the next two innings for the final of 19-7.

With four doubles in the game Corrado tied a school record with four doubles that was just set last weekend by Rosenbaum.

Scott Chapman (5-0) relieved starter Johnny Williams and pitched 3.2 innings for the victory. Raymon Garcia took the loss for the Sharks and fell to 5-1 one season. Tyler Nessmith tossed two innings allowing only one hit, while Rick Hudson threw a perfect ninth, making his first career appearance for Tampa.

Two Nova errors led to five unearned runs in the second inning for the Spartans.

Kennedy's single through the right side scored T. Ferguson and Tampa led 6-0 after three.

Brannon and T. Ferguson led off the fourth with back-to-back doubles and another Shark error gave Tampa two runs, extending their lead to 8-0.

Brenton Cianci's fielder's choice drove in another run as Brannon crossed the plate in the sixth.

T. Ferguson's single in the seventh drove in a Spartan run and the fourth error by the home team led to another as Tampa's lead stretched to an 11-0 final score.

Kevin Ferguson's (7-2) six innings of scoreless ball led to his seventh win of the season. Craig Benner threw a perfect seventh inning in closing the game.