Baseball is back, as the defending National Champion and top-ranked Spartans (3-1) came back from a seven run deficit to beat the second-ranked Georgia College and State University Bulldogs (1-2) 16-8 Friday night. Tampa won two out of three games in the weekend series and proved they are not easy to beat no matter what the scoreboard says.
Game one started out poorly for the Spartans, as the Bulldogs posted an early seven run lead. Left fielder Brandon Anderson started the power surge in the Bulldogs part of the first inning, belting a three run home run to right-center off of freshman starting pitcher Anthony Perez. The score became 4-0 when catcher Tripp Burt hit a single with runners on first and third.
After giving up another run in the top of the second, Spartans head coach Joe Urso took Perez out of the game with a runner on first. Reliever Scott Chapman, who was out all last season with an arm injury, came in and let up a first pitch, two-run homer to right fielder Casey Cullen to make the score 7-0 in favor of the Bulldogs.
“It was just a ‘Welcome to UT’ kind of home run. I had to re-focus after that,” Chapman said.
After giving up the homer, Chapman went on to dominate the Bulldogs for the rest of the game, striking out nine and giving up no runs and four hits in 5 1/3 innings.
“I give a lot of credit to the personality of our team,” said Urso. “The big part for me was Chapman coming in and shutting down the other team. Scott comes in and works both sides of the plate and throws strikes.”
While Chapman was hurling a gem, the Spartans offense climbed its way back in the second and third inning.
In the second, Bulldogs starter Andy Reichard walked Spartans DH Ryan Williams with the bases loaded to give the Spartans their first run. With the bases still loaded, Spartans center fielder Junior Mejia hit a two-run double, driving in Chris Rosenbaum and Paul Cruz.
The Spartans added on four more runs in the third inning. Shortstop Roberto Mena started off the Spartan attack with a one-out double, which outfielder Cruz and third baseman Craig Corrado followed with consecutive singles. With the bases loaded, Rosenbaum hit a two run double. Two batters later, Mejia hit his second two-run double of the day, driving in Cruz and Rosenbaum to tie the game up at 7-7. Mejia went 3-4 with 4 RBI for the day.
After taking the lead off of a wild pitch, Tampa broke the game open in the fourth with back-to back homers by Corrado and Cruz to make the score 11-7 in favor of Tampa. Three innings later, the Spartans added five more runs, highlighted by Corrado’s second home run of the game, a three-run blast to center field.
Corrado finished the game 4-5 with two home runs and five RBI.
“Last year we hit a lot of home runs, and this year we have more speed. When we’re down a lot of runs, we are just trying to get runners on base. We’ve been here before, but coach Urso just preaches to keep fighting,” said Corrado.
The final score was 16-8, and a memorable moment in UT history followed the game.
Assistant coach Sam Militello’s no. 22 jersey was retired. Militello’s jersey now hangs on the outfield wall next to former coach Lelo Prado and former Spartan great Tino Martinez.
In the second game of the double-header, the Spartans took an early 1-0 lead after second baseman Ryan Kennedy hit an opposite field home run. Another run scored after first baseman Jose Jimenez and Mena hit back to back doubles.
The bottom of the third saw the Spartans add seven more runs, including Corrado’s third home run of the day, this time a two run shot. The final score of this game was 9-4 Tampa.
Tampa lost out on a series sweep Sunday as the Bulldogs beat them 12-10, but they also proved they are not easy to beat. Down 10-2 in the seventh inning, the Spartans scored eight runs to tie the game at 10 all.
Their comeback bid fell short when Bulldogs outfielder Justin Mills hit a game-winning two-run home run that just cleared the right field fence.