Heath Pritchard Leads Top-Ranked Spartans to Doubleheader Sweep
MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. - The No. 1 University of Tampa (5-0) baseball team picked up a pair of road victories over No. 30 Georgia College (2-3), topping the Bobcats by respective scores of 15-6 and 4-2.
Trailing the entire first game, Jake Schrader connected on a three-run home run to put the Spartans up by a 6-5 score. Heath Pritchard would then come off the bench in the eighth with the bases loaded to hit a bases-clearing double with the bags full of Spartans.
In his next at bat, Pritchard drove in three more runs with a three-run home run in the ninth inning to score Raiko Alfonso and Eric Grabe.
Pritchard finished game one with six RBI in a 2-for-2 effort at the plate. Schrader also added four RBI while going 3-for-5. Andrew Jones drove in two runs for head coach Joe Urso while Alfonso and Connor Obrochta each had one.
Sean Bierman started for the Spartans, going 4.0 innings and striking out four GC hitters. Preston Packrall improved to 2-0 on the year as Evan Stobbs earned his second save of the season while throwing 3.0 scoreless innings. Stobbs allowed just one hit while fanning two.
Tampa was forced to come back in game two as well, trailing 2-0 after a pair of GC second inning runs. A two-run sixth inning gave UT a 3-2 advantage as the Spartans tacked on another insurance run in the top of the seventh.
Damon Elder had a pair of hits in game two, also driving in a run. Pritchard started at DH and was 2-for-3 from the plate as Obrochta also drove in a run.
Ben Brown went 6.0 innings as the starter picked up his second win of the year to move to 2-0. Brown finished with six strikeouts while only allowing two hits. Mike Zaccardo threw a scoreless seventh to earn his first save as a Spartan.
Tampa and Georgia College will meet in the final game of the series on Saturday at 1 p.m.
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