Spartans start 1-0 in SSC play

Box score

MIAMI SHORES, Fla. - The No. 1 ranked University of Tampa baseball team defeated the home team Barry University Buccaneers by a score of 13-6. Friday night's victory was the first game of a 3-game series against the Buccaneers.

Unlike in Wednesday's game against Cedarville University, the Spartans were able to get on the scoreboard in their first at-bats.Thanks to the bats of Giovanny Alfonzo and Cody deNoyelles, the Spartans were able to take a 3-0 lead after the first.

Chase Sparkman got the start for the Spartans and was chasing his 4th win of the season. Sparkman gave up a 2-run homerun but was capable of getting out of the inning without any other damage. Once Sparkman settled in, he was able to record outs on 8 of the next 11 batters. His day ended after 7 innings of pitching and only allowing 4 runs, which would give him enough for the win.

In the top of the 4th, Tampa was able to tack on some more runs. Andrew Amaro would come around to score after an Alfonzo single and wild pitch. Alfonzo would join Amaro is scoring after Nick Flair hit a sac-fly to bring him in, making the score 5-2.

The most offensive production the Spartans had came in the top of the 6th inning. Alfonzo and Steven Dezzi were able to get on base with no outs. Alfonzo would come around to score after Townsend hit into a double-play. With deNoyelles and Dezzi on base, Nick Tindall came to the plate and came up big. Tindall hit a 3-run homerun off the light tower in left field to increase the Spartans lead to 8-2. The Spartans would get 1 more run in the inning to go up 9-2 heading into the bottom of the 6th.

The Buccaneers were able to get some offensive production of their own, but it wouldn't be enough. Brodzinski hit his 2nd homerun of the evening to bring the Bucs score to 4. Pinch hitters Gonzalez and Khawly came into the game in the bottom of the 8th and added some spark to the offensive production by scoring 2 runs and cutting the lead to just 4.

Thanks to a strong outting by several members of the Spartans' bullpen, they were able to get out of a jam. Dylan Barrow came on to pitch with the bases loaded and the tying run at the plate and easily handled getting out of the jam and gave up no runs.

The Spartans added insurance runs in the top of the 9th to put the game in the books. Nick Tindall led off the inning with a double down the right field line. Ty Cooler would join Tindall on the basepaths with a single that advanced Tindall to 3rd. Casey Scoggins was able to bring Tindall in thanks to a throwing error on his single. Andrew Amaro hit a sac-fly in the next at bat to bring Cooler in. The Spartans gathered 4 total runs in the top of the 9th to make it a 13-6 game.

Taylor Brookes came on to the close the game and did exactly that, and quickly. Brookes retired the first 2 batters on 3 pitches. With the final batter at the plate, Brookes threw 3 straight strikes to get the final out of the game and finalize the Spartans' 13-6 victory.

Tonight's victory marks the Tampa Spartans' first Sunshine State Conference of the season. The Spartans will finish their 3-game series with Barry University in a doubleheader tomorrow. The first pitch for Game 2 will be at 1:00 PM at Barry University Baseball Field.

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