Baseball Rivarly Heats Up as Tampa Heads to FSC

LAKELAND, Fla. - With only two Sunshine State Conference opponents, the No. 18 University of Tampa baseball team will head to Lakeland to face the No. 12 team in Florida Southern College for their final road games of the regular season. The crucial three-game set will begin Friday with a 7 p.m. start and end with a Saturday doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m at FSC's Henley Field.

The Spartans were swept in their last SSC matchup as the Barry University Buccaneers as they out-matched the Spartans 25-8 on the weekend. Tampa remains fourth in the conference standings with an 11-7 record in SSC play and 27-13 overall.

The Mocs took their series against Palm Beach Atlantic University 2-1 as two of the games went into extra innings. FSC holds the second place spot in SSC play with 10-2 while their overall record stands at 26-9.

The series marks the final matchup between the rival schools of the regular season as the sports are knotted up in 6-6 as baseball becomes the deciding matchup for the season. The Mocs beat the Spartans in men's and women's basketball, women's soccer and tennis while Tampa owns the marks in softball, men's soccer and volleyball.

FSC also holds the all-time record in baseball by a slim 72-71 lead, as a sweep will give the Spartans the all-series lead. Tampa swept the Mocs last season as they look to gain ground in the SSC standings.

Live stats will be provided through www.tampaspartans.com. Fans may also follow University of Tampa athletics on Twitter (www.twitter.com/utspartans) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/tampaspartans). UT also offers blAst, a free text messaging service that sends text alerts following all Spartan events. To sign up, please register at www.tampaspartans.com.