Tampa Moves on in South Regional

Box score

TAMPA, Fla. - The #1 University of Tampa (47-9) used the long-ball to fend off the #30 Carson-Newman Eagles (36-20) in an game that ended the season for the visitors. Five runs came off home runs for Tampa in the 6-4 win.

Carson-Newman took advantage of a three base error by center fielder Paul Cruz, in the first inning, when Nick Achberger's sacrifice fly drove in Langdon Potts. However Scott Chapman limited the Eagles to only one run, escaping from further damage.

Jose Jimenez got that run back plus some in the bottom of the first with a line-drive homerun to left-center field with Craig Corrado and Roberto Mena on base. Later in the inning , Chris Rosenbaum drove in Troy Ferguson with a double to left-center and Tampa led 4-1.

Carson-Newman struck again in the third with a run on Tyler Wynn's RBI hit-by-pitch. Chapman once again staved off any more runs with a huge inning ending strikeout of Derek Long.

The Spartans scored a run as Corrado led off the fifth with his 10th homerun of the season, giving Tampa a 5-2 lead.

Chapman left the game after the sixth inning and was replaced by Scott Leffler who ran into some trouble in the seventh. The Eagles put two runs across the plate on RBI by Adam Kefauver and Jason Gray to cut Tampa's lead to 5-4.

Charlie Raley gave the Spartan's a little breathing room with a solo-home run to lead off the top of the eighth, his second of the season.

Chapman (7-0) was awarded the win after he tossed six innings, allowing two runs on eight hits with four stikeouts. Jonathan Holt replaced Leffler with one out in the seventh and recorded eight outs in collecting his 18th save.

Tampa plays tomorrow at 11:00 am against the winner of the Tusculum/Florida Gulf Coast game.