Tampa Baseball Set to Open 2015 at Home
January 30, 2015

Tampa Baseball Set to Open 2015 at Home

TAMPA, Fla. - Coming off another record season, the University of Tampa baseball team will open the 2015 campaign with a three-game series against Bentley University.

The series will feature three days of action, beginning Saturday at 6 p.m., at the UT Baseball Field. Sunday's game is set for 1 p.m., with Monday's finale at 3 p.m.

The Spartans enter the season as the nation's No. 1 team according to two of the three polls. Both Perfect Game and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) have head coach Joe Urso's squad in the top spot. Collegiate Baseball Newspaper has UT at No. 2, behind 2015 opponent and defending national champion University of Southern Indiana.

UT is coming off a 54-4 season, tying the school mark for wins in a season. Tampa also ended the 2014 season with a school-record .931 winning percentage. The Sunshine State Conference and NCAA South Region champions posted 22 wins against nationally-ranked teams in 2014. A 22-1 SSC record was also a league record for victories and winning percentage.

Though the Spartans return just three offensive starters, the trio were among the top UT hitters last season as All-American designated hitter/outfielder Stephen Dezzi hit .369 with eight home runs and a team-high 47 RBI. Shortstop Giovanny Alfonzo hit .317 with 31 RBI while catcher Nick Tindall blasted a team-leading 11 home runs to go with a .308 average and 42 RBI.

Junior David Heintz returns to anchor a rotation that posted a 3.09 team ERA in 2014. The first-team all-Sunshine State Conference selection had a dominating season with a perfect 10-0 record. He also sported a 2.08 ERA with 61 strikeouts in 95.1 innings.

Bentley is coming off a 22-18 season where it was 17-10 in Northeast-10 Conference play. The Falcons fell to a pair of nationally-ranked teams in Franklin Pierce and Southern New Hampshire to conclude conference tournament action.

Senior outfielder Mike Muir is the team's top returning hitter as he posted a .286 average with 15 RBI last season. Senior left Ryan O'Connor expects to be the team's ace as he is coming off a 5-5 season with a 2.57 ERA. Bentley lost just one pitcher from last year.

This marks the fourth consecutive season where Tampa and Bentley have opened the year as opponents. All series have been played in Tampa, with the Spartans sweeping last year's play. Overall, the Spartans are 8-1 versus Bentley over that span. In the all-time series, Tampa owns a 9-1 advantage versus the Falcons.

Tampa has been nationally ranked for 21 consecutive seasons dating back to 1994. Additionally, the Spartans have been a mainstay in the top-10 under Urso as they have been in the top-10 each of his 15 seasons at the helm. This also marks the sixth time that the Spartans are a preseason No. 1, and the second straight. The Spartans also own a string of 165 consecutive weeks in the national rankings.

Live stats and video will be available for all games. Fans may follow live stats at Tampa.Statbroadcast.com, or TampaStats.com on a mobile device. Fans may also watch live through TampaSpartans.tv.

Fans may follow University of Tampa athletics on Twitter (www.twitter.com/utspartans), Facebook (www.facebook.com/tampaspartans), YouTube (youtube.com/utathletics) and Instragram (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.