#15 Tampa Can’t Hang On At #4 Barry

Box score

MIAMI SHORES, Fla. - The No. 15 University of Tampa Spartans fell victim to the long ball at the hands of the No. 4 Barry University Buccaneers in Friday night's Sunshine State Conference series opener. Barry overcame an early 4-0 deficit to defeat Tampa by a final score of 7-5. The Spartans (36-13, 13-6 SSC) will look to rebound against the Bucs (39-6, 16-3 SSC) in tomorrow afternoon's double header.

Tampa got things going in the first off Barry's Brad McAllister as they strung together three singles to plate the game's first run. Correy Figueroa singled up the middle and moved to third on a base hit from designated hitter Mike Schwartz. Right fielder Steven Broschofsky then stroked a two-out single to right field to put Tampa up 1-0.

Jose Jimenez and Broschofsky led off the fourth inning with singles before Jared Simon doubled down the left field line to score Jimenez. Casey Albanese followed with an RBI single to left-center and Jesus Barroso drove in Simon from third with a fielder's choice groundout to stretch the Spartan lead to 4-0.

The potent offense of Barry, however, would not stay quiet for long, as Yas Guttierez popped his 13th home run of the season in the fourth, a two-run shot to left, to cut the Tampa lead in half off starter Josh Bowman. In the fifth, the Buccaneers stroked two singles off Bowman before he was lifted in favor of Danny Keefe. Second baseman Mitch Rodriguez took Keefe's first pitch over the fence, putting UT down for the first time in the game. Barry added two more off Keefe in the sixth to put the score at 7-4 and out of reach for Tampa.

Tommy Meagher pitched two effective innings to keep Tampa in the game, allowing just one hit and striking out three. The Spartans threatened in the eighth when Garrett Maines singled and pinch-hitter Devin Gonzalez followed with one of his own. Gonzalez's ball to right slipped under the glove of Guttierez and Maines scored to make it 7-5, but the Spartans couldn't take advantage of the fielding blunder beyond that.

Keefe (4-5) took the loss for Tampa while McAllister picked up his ninth win against no losses.

The two teams return to action tomorrow afternoon at noon in a conference doubleheader. UT will offer livestats through www.tampaspartans.com.