Saint Joseph’s College Buries No. 6 Tampa
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
St. Joseph's (Ind.)
|
0 | 5 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 18 | 22 | 2 |
|
Tampa
|
0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 7 | 4 |
TAMPA, Fla. - Nearly a year after UT soundly defeated Saint Joseph's College, the Pumas returned the favor by roughing up the No. 6 University of Tampa Spartans baseball team by an 18-4 score on Monday night. SJC posted 22 hits and capitalized on four UT errors to improve to 4-5 while the Spartans drop to 12-5 on the season.
Eric Meyerchick (1-1) was stellar in his outing for the Pumas, limiting the Spartan offense to just one run on four hits in six innings of work for his first victory of the year.
Third baseman Sean Estand led the charge for SJU with three hits as six other Pumas recorded multi-hit games and all but one tallied at least a one base knock in the contest.
The scoring got started in the top of the second inning when the visitors drew back-to-back walks from Tampa starter Shane Riedie (2-1) to start the frame. Matt Foltz then attempted to lay down a sacrifice bunt but an errant throw by Riedie advanced all three runners two bases each. Senior Wade Finke followed with a two-run double and Estand later singled home a run to make it a 4-0 advantage. The Pumas pushed one more across in the inning when Estand got caught in a pickle, allowing Finke to score.
Saint Joseph's College then piled on 10 more runs over the next four innings, including another five-run frame in the fourth that put Pumas comfortably ahead. Three more runs were added in the top of ninth to round out the scoring for SJC.
Raiko Alfonso and Eric Grabe were the lone bright spots for Tampa, combining for three RBI on three hits.
Tampa returns to action on Wednesday to take on Slippery Rock at 6 p.m. at the University of Tampa Baseball Field. Livestats will be available through www.tampaspartans.com.
Fans may also follow University of Tampa athletics on Twitter (www.twitter.com/utspartans) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/tampaspartans). UT also offers blAst, a free text messaging service that sends text alerts following all Spartan events. To sign up, please register at www.tampaspartans.com.