No. 6 Spartans Roll Over Slippery Rock

Box score

TAMPA, Fla. - After dropping their last matchup against Saint Joseph's College, the No. 6 University of Tampa baseball team bounces back to beat Slippery Rock University by a 10-6 score. With the win, the Spartans increase to 13-5 on the season while The Rock fall to 6-5 overall.

Eric Grabe ended the night hitting 3-for-4 while crossing the plate twice. The junior third baseman also drove in two runs off of a deep homer to left during the contest. Second baseman Raiko Alfonso and outfielder Andrew Jones each added two RBI and two hits, catalysts of the five-run seventh inning for Tampa.

SRU was first to score as Jamison Walck sent a line-drive solo homer to left but the Spartans responded in the home half of the second with an RBI bunt single from outfielder Damon Elder. The score knotted at 1-1 at the end of the second frame.

The third set added another run for the Rock as Matt Howard hit a sacrifice fly to right to regain the lead for Slippery Rock at 2-1.

Designated hitter Trace Venegas took the lead for the Spartans in the fifth with an RBI double to left center field to push Tampa to a 3-2 lead.

Third baseman Grabe launched his third homer of the year to deep left, the two RBI bomb increased the Spartan lead 5-2 in the home half of the sixth.

More noise in the seventh as Tampa tacks on five more runs off of a RBI double from Patrick Donahue to push the game out of reach for The Rock. Infielder Alfonso and Left fielder Jones both contributed 2 RBI singles on the inning to increase the Spartan lead to 10-2.

The Rock chip four off the lead by way of the RBI single, one each off of Walck, designated hitter Matt Kosik, and a two RBI hit for right fielder Eric Carr to round out the SRU scoring in the eighth, Spartans lead narrows 10-6.

Reliever Ryan Kennedy earned the win, pitching two innings of no-hit ball, while walking one and fanning three. Righty Tim Kiley pitched a four-out save allowing one hit and walking none.

The Spartans hit the road to begin Sunshine State Conference play, as they are set to meet Nova Southeastern in a three game set, first to start Friday at 6 p.m. Livestats will be available through www.tampaspartans.com.

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