Alfonso, Elder Push Spartans Past Tritons

Box score

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - The No. 1 University of Tampa baseball team defeated Sunshine State Conference opponent Eckerd College in a back-and-forth battle on Friday night. The 5-4 win improves Tampa to 33-8 (13-6 SSC) as Eckerd falls to 15-26 (3-16 SSC).

The first of Tampa's runs came in the third inning after a two-RBI single by senior Damon Elder plated fellow Spartans Shane Rowland and Raiko Alfonso.

With the Spartans up 2-0 to Eckerd, the Tritons managed to add one run in both the third and fourth innings to erase the two-run deficit and tie up the game.

In the top of the sixth inning, Elder put the Spartans atop the Tritons for the second time of the contest. Tampa's third basemen launched an opposite field homerun to right, scoring himself and Alfonso. At this point in the game, Elder had batted in all of Tampa's four runs.

A two-RBI Eckerd triple in the bottom of the seventh by Triton Joey Larose evened the game once again, this time at four runs apiece.

The tie did not last long. In the top of the eighth inning, Alfonso crushed his third hit of the night over the rightfield wall for a solo homerun. The solo shot helped to regain the Spartan lead, putting Tampa up 5-4 over Eckerd.

Tampa would hold on to the one-run lead for the remainder of the contest.

Junior southpaw Ben O'Shea started on the hill for Tampa. O'Shea threw 6.1 innings while allowing nine hits, four earned runs, and striking out six Tritons. Senior righty Evan Stobbs pitched 2.2 innings of work, allowing just two hits and striking out the same number of Tritons. Stobbs was awarded the win, his fourth of the season.

Alfonso finished the game 3-for-3 with a homerun, double, and what would become the game-winning RBI. Elder batted .500 on the night with a homerun while taking responsibility for four of the five Spartan runs. Senior Andrew Jones also batted for a .500 clip after notching two singles.

Tampa totaled eight hits in the game compared to Eckerd's 11.

The Spartans will return to St. Petersburg on Saturday for a SSC doubleheader against the Tritons beginning at 1 p.m. Live stats will be available through TampaSpartans.com.

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