Tampa Continues Top Trend In D-II
TAMPA, Fla. - For the third consecutive week, the University of Tampa baseball team continues its reign as the top team in Division II as per a number of the latest polls. The National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association, Collegiate Baseball Newspaper, College Baseball Lineup and D2 Baseball News each tab Tampa as the team to beat in their latest respective polling periods.
Head Coach Joe Urso's Spartans sit 11-1 on the season after facing tough competition in ranked opponents USC-Aiken, Mount Olive and Georgia College.
The Sunshine State Conference maintains a strong presence in the rankings as Barry (No. 18*), Florida Tech (No. 5*), Nova Southeastern (No. 6*), Lynn (No. 21*) and Saint Leo (No. 24*) each appear in at least one of the recent ranking releases.
Tampa leads a strong South Region that also features West Florida (No. 2*), Valdosta State (No. 9*), Alabama-Huntsville (No. 22*) and Delta State (No. 25*) as the teams continue to trend in recent polls.
The Spartan offense remains one of the top in the conference as the squad leads in hits (142), slugging percentage (.495), and home runs (11).
Senior Tyler Ding anchors a torrid Spartan attack as the reigning offensive player of the week leads UT with 19 hits and six doubles en route to a .413 batting clip. The corner infielder is tied for the RBI lead (13) while catcher Nick Tindall has four home runs this season to go along with 12 RBI and a .447 batting average.
Sophomore Trey Oest owns a 4-0 record in his four games started, also leading Tampa with 23 strikeouts. Senior Preston Packrall (1-0) is sporting a 0.60 ERA in his 15 innings of work while reliever Kevin McNorton (1-0) has a blemish free 0.00 ERA to go along with two saves and six strikeouts over nine innings.
Fans may follow University of Tampa athletics on Twitter (www.twitter.com/utspartans), Facebook (www.facebook.com/tampaspartans), YouTube (youtube.com/utathletics) and Instragram (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.
Click here for Collegiate Baseball Newspaper poll
Click here for College Baseball Lineup poll
Click here for D2 Baseball News poll
*Denotes the highest ranking among each of the polls