
Tampa Outduels Eckerd in Friday Night’s Win
TAMPA, Fla. - With the last series of the regular season underway, the No. 13 University of Tampa baseball team outdueled Eckerd College on Friday night 4-1. With the rubber-match win the Spartans improve to 33-15 on the season with a 14-8 Sunshine State Conference mark while the Tritons fall to 17-30 with a 5-17 conference tally.
Shortstop Patrick Donahue hit 2-for-4 on the night with two RBI as he belted a solo shot begin the UT attack. Both teams were held scoreless through three innings as both hurlers traded outs.
The senior Donahue broke up the scoreless drought as he launched a home run over the right field fence to give the Spartans a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the third.
Eckerd rallied back to even the score at 1-1, as the Tritons strung some key hits together to knot the tally.
Some more heroics from their shortstop as a RBI single from Donahue paved way for the Spartans to regain the lead at 2-1 after seven innings.
Tampa touched up the Tritons in the eighth frame as Tyler Ding picked up a RBI by way of the sacrifice fly. Heads up base running attributed to the other run of the inning as Damon Elder came home after a failed pick-off attempt to cushion the Spartan lead at 4-1.
Senior starter Josh Thrailkill pitched 7.2 stellar innings, scattering seven hits allowing a single earned run. The Clemson transfer tallied four strikeouts with two walks to pick up the win. Reliever Tim Kiley pitched the final four outs of the game, allowing no runs to pick up his seventh save of the season.
Tampa concludes its regular season Sunday with a doubleheader tabbed for a 1 p.m. start with game two set to begin at 4 p.m. Live stats will be provided through www.tampaspartans.com.
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