Spartans Drown Tritons to Complete Series Sweep
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.- The No.1 ranked University of Tampa baseball team completed the series sweep over Sunshine State Conference foe Eckerd College Saturday afternoon. UT held on to win the first matchup 5-4 and shutout the second 7-0.
With the pair of wins, Tampa extends its win streak to nine games and improves to a pristine 39-2 on the season, while also holding a stellar 14-1 record in SSC play. On the other side, Eckerd drops to 21-16 on the year, 8-10 in SSC competition.
In game one, utility man Nick Tindall smacked his team-high 10th home run on the season. Superstar shortstop Giovanny Alfonzo hit a solid 4-for-9 between the two games. Seniors Tyler Ding, Michael Danner, and Zach Gawrych were nearly perfect as the trio hit a combined 9-for-10 in the second game. Between the two games UT amassed an impressive 25 hits.
In his first game back from injury, Trey Oest (8-0) picked up the win for the Spartans in game one, throwing four innings, allowing no runs on five hits and striking out two Triton batters.
Kevin McNorton came in relief throwing three and a third innings, while allowing no runs on just one hit, and was credited with his ninth save of the year.
Eckerd starter Nick Hill (1-2) was tabbed with the loss, going four innings, giving up four earned runs on eight hits, while striking out three.
In game two, Preston Packrall (6-0) threw his second complete game shutout of the season, pitching all seven innings, while only giving up six hits, and striking out two.
Starting pitcher for the Tritons Jimmy Gutowski (8-2) came up as the losing pitcher, throwing four and a third, while giving up seven runs on 15 hits.
Tampa will welcome Sunshine State Conference member, Nova Southeastern University for a weekend conference series. The first game will be played Friday at 6 p.m. followed by a Saturday doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m. Live stats as well as a live video webcast will be made available through www.tampaspartans.com.
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