Offense Comes To Life As Tampa Takes Two From Rollins
TAMPA, Fla. - A 26-run outburst carried the University of Tampa Spartans baseball team to a sweep of the Rollins College Tars on Saturday at the UT Baseball Field. The Spartans (27-9) complete the season sweep over the Tars (20-17, 2-10) and improve to 11-4 in the SSC standings. UT won by scores of 16-4 and 10-3, and finished with 36 hits on the day.
In game one, the Tampa offense was relentless as it scored in every inning except for the fifth. Every Spartan that had a plate appearance also recorded at least one hit as the team finished with 25, the second highest total of the season.
Patrick Donahue, Andrew Jones, Shawn Pleffner, and Connor Obrochta each tallied three hits in the contest. Jones stroked a pair of doubles and drove home three runs, matching catcher Mike Bourdon for the most RBI in the game. Bourdon also launched his second homer of the season, along with Pleffner, as they both went deep in the fourth inning.
The runs were plenty for starter Frank DeJiulio (5-2) who worked five innings for his team-leading fifth victory of 2011. The junior scattered four hits and allowed just two runs, striking out five Tars in the winning effort.
Shane Riedie followed with two innings and fanned four hitters before Ryan Kennedy hurled two perfect frames to preserve the victory.
Will Krasne (3-3) was charged with the loss for Rollins as he was hit hard in 2.2 innings. The right-hander allowed seven earned runs on 10 hits and issued three walks before exiting the game. Tampa showed no mercy for the following relievers, scoring nine more runs in the game.
In the nightcap of the twinbill, Tampa jumped on the scoreboard when Pleffner roped a two-run single into leftfield to give the Spartans a quick lead in the first frame.
The Tars touched up the Spartans for one run in the second to put Rollins within one of the Tampa lead.
UT added a pair of sacrifice flies from Elder and Obrochta in the second and third innings, respectively, to cushion the Spartan lead at 4-1.
Rollins then chased Tampa starter Justin Leith in the fourth after collecting two more runs to bring the game back to within a run once more.
However, the Spartans later ran away with the contest with a six-run fifth inning, highlighted by two-RBI doubles off the bat of Raiko Alfonso and Donahue. Eric Grabe and Pleffner drove home a run each later in the frame to round out the scoring at 10-3
Cody Davis (1-1) worked three innings in relief of Leith for his first win as a Spartan. Junior Max Kreuter followed with a perfect seventh inning to seal the win. Rollins starter Matt White (2-2) was credited with the loss.
The Spartans hit the field again on April 12 when they wrap up the current eight-game homestand with a 5 p.m. game against NAIA opponent Embry-Riddle University. Live stats will be provided through www.tampaspartans.com.
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