Spartans Offense Leads the Way to Saturday Sweep

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. - The University of Tampa softball team wrapped up their participation in the Flagler Tournament with a pair of games on Saturday afternoon. They took on the Newberry College Wolves in the first game and faced the Georgia Southwestern Hurricanes in a rematch of the second game yesterday.

INSIDE THE MATCHUP:

Final: Tampa 10 (W: Corynn Miner 3-0), Newberry 2 (L: Emily Marchbanks 1-1)
Records: Tampa (5-1), Newberry (3-1)
Location: Flagler Field | St. Augustine, Fla.
All-time Series: Tampa and Newberry faced off for the first time in school history.
Follow Us: @TampaSpartans on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Vimeo

HOW IT HAPPENED:

1st Inning: Newberry opened the scoring in the top of the first inning as Christina Linton doubled to right center field, bringing in Rachel Minion who had doubled in her at-bat.

2nd Inning: The Spartans answered the call in the bottom half of the inning as Erica Matich singled to right field and allowed Makaleigh Dooley to score from second base and moving Elly Pillers (who had reached base after being hit by a pitch) to third base and tying the score at 1-1. Two batters later, Sahrina Cortes doubled to left field bringing in Matich and Pillers to give UT a 3-1 lead.

3rd Inning: Pillers singled through the left side which allowed Dooley to come home as she had opened the inning with a double to left-center field and had moved to third on a sacrifice bunt by Maddie Farrell.

5th Inning: The Wolves tried to get back in the game with Morgan Sweeney hitting a single to center field and scoring off a double by Natalie Willis. Willis advanced to third on the throw but would be thrown out at home on the next batter as Taylor Farrell dived at second base to stop a ball hit back up the middle and make the throw in time to home plate and keep the score at 4-2.

6th Inning: Tampa's offense came into the bottom of the half in rhythm and came alive to wrap up the game an inning early. Bre Setree began the inning drawing a walk and was replaced by pinch runner Alex Walton. A batter later, Dooley drew another walk to put two runners on with Pillers loading the bases with two outs as she hit an infield single back to the pitcher. Matich scored Walton as she drew yet another walk from the Wolves pitching staff and Shelby Press brought in two runs with a single to right field. After a pitching change for Newberry, Cortes soon hit a double to left center that brought in two more runs making the score 9-2. After T. Farrell walked to put runners at first and second, Setree ended the game with a single to left field scoring Cortes as UT batted all the way around.

INSIDE THE STATS:

• The Spartans hit three doubles during the game, nearly doubling their total in the first five games.
• Tampa reached double digits in hits (11) for the second time this season, the first time being in the season opener against Chadron State (10).
• The Wolves used four different pitchers during the game, with Marchbanks only tossing 1.1 innings and giving up three runs on four hits and one walk without any strikeouts.

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BEYOND THE BOXSCORE

• This was the first game of the season in which UT scored double-digit runs.
• The Wolves had not conceded a single run before giving up the 10 runs to Tampa.
• The loss snaps Newberry's undefeated start to the season.

INSIDE THE MATCHUP:

Final: Tampa 7 (W: Dooley 3-1), Georgia Southwestern 3 (L: Gibson 1-2) 
Records: Tampa (6-1), Georgia Southwestern (1-5)
Location: Flagler Field | St. Augustine, Fla.
All-time Series: Tampa leads the all-time series with a 2-0 record
Follow Us: @TampaSpartans on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Vimeo

HOW IT HAPPENED:

1st Inning: Like in the first game, it did not take long for the scoring to start. This time, Georgia Southwestern took a 3-0 lead as Allee Denney sent a shot past the right field fence driving in Joshlyn Martin and Hayley Tierce.

2nd Inning: Similarly, to the first game, Tampa answered the call in the bottom of the second inning. Maddie Farrell singled up the middle and advance to second on a single through the left side of the infield by Pillers. Lauren Pascoe came in as a pinch runner for Farrell at second and Jenny Sittloh tied the game as she sent a home run past the left field fence to knot the game up at 3-3. Press kept the inning going with a bunt single and later stole second base to set up another runner in scoring position. Cortes singled up the middle to break the tie as Press came in safely giving UT the 4-3 lead they would not concede again.

3rd Inning: The Spartans added another run off a balk by the Hurricanes pitcher with the bases loaded that allowed Pillers to come in to score.

4th Inning: Press and Cortes combined again for Tampa as Press opened the bottom half of the inning with a double to center field and Cortes drove her in with a single to the same area.

6th Inning: The final run of the evening came courtesy of a single by T.Farrell to second base and some alert base running by Cortes. The centerfielder had doubled to left-center with two outs and took advantage of the Hurricanes being focused on the play at first to come all the way around to score.

INSIDE THE STATS:

• The Spartans hit double digits in hits for the second consecutive row as they tallied 12 this game.
• UT scored seven runs in back to back games against the Hurricanes and added another home run to make it four this season.
• After conceding the three runs in the opening inning, Dooley shut down the Hurricanes the rest of the way to earn the win as she struck out seven batters and walked just one.

BEYOND THE BOXSCORE:

•  UT will open conference play having scored 37 runs this year to go with 57 hits.

UP NEXT:

Tampa returns to action on Friday February 17 when they travel to Winter Park, Fla. to take on Rollins College to open Sunshine State Conference play. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m. A livestream and live stats will be available.

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