Spartans Take First Two Games In Series Against Fighting Knights

The Spartans Returned to the field after Friday's game was postponed.

Spartans Take First Two Games In Series Against Fighting Knights
April 16, 2016

BOCA RATON, Fla. – The fifth-ranked University of Tampa Spartans baseball team traveled to Boca Raton to take on the Lynn University Fighting Knights. The Spartans concluded game one on Saturday afternoon after the game was postponed Friday due to rain. Tampa finished game one with a 15-9 victory and won game two by a final of 9-6.

The victories moved Tampa to 30-6 overall and 12-2 in Sunshine State Conference play. Lynn now sits at 20-18 and 9-8 in conference play.
 
In game one, the UT offense continued to roll as they hit three home runs in the game. In the top of the second inning, J.D Osborne hit a three-run home run to right field to give Tampa a 6-3 lead over Lynn. Osborne was then followed by Laz Rivera, who connected on his second home run of the year to push the lead to 7-3.
 

In the fourth inning, Osborne would blast another home run as he hit a shot over the trees in left field. 

LU would hit three home runs of their own as John Borup hit one and John Silviano blasted two.

Christopher Williams earned the start for Tampa, as the righty went five innings, giving up six earned runs and striking out three batters. With the victory, the junior improves to 7-2 on the season.

Conner Andrews and Trey Oest each tossed an inning of work allowing no runs while Chris McCormick threw the final two innings of the contest.

In game two, UT jumped out early on LU scoring two runs in the top of the first inning. Vin Cosenzo would drive in both runs as he hit a double to the right centerfield gap.

In the third, the Spartans would add a pair of runs as Matt Piatt and Chris Gaffney each drew bases-loaded walks to give Tampa the 4-0 lead.

In the fourth inning, the Spartans tacked on five runs, scoring on an Osborne single and a Laz Rivera sacrifice fly. Adrian Chacon would add the final three runs of the inning as the first baseman hit an opposite field home run.

Lynn would make the game interesting as they were able to pull within three of Tampa at 9-6 in the bottom of the ninth inning. Andrews was able to get the final two outs of the game as he struck out Silviano and got Tyler Curtis to ground out to Osborne.

Kevin Martin earned his second win of the season, as the lefty threw six innings in the game allowing three runs. The lefty would strike out seven Fighting Knights in the game. Cody Martin would go two innings in the game allowing three hits. Andrew would earn his second save of the season. 

The two will play the final game of the series tomorrow afternoon. The game is scheduled to start at noon at the Lynn Baseball Field. 

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