The Spartans are rolling. No. 1 University of Tampa went in to Georgia College this past weekend and swept the three-game series.
Normally, that would be business as usual for the 6-0 Spartans, but despite Georgia College being outside of the SSC, they still match up with Tampa every year. It was Georgia College who, two years ago, thwarted the Spartans’ national championship hopes in the championship game.
“Every year we play them, it’s always three battles,” said Coach Joe Urso. “One year they will take two out of three, the next we’ll take two out of three, we’re excited that we were able to go into their house and take all three this time.”
Pitching carried the Spartans, but the bats were resilient. Tampa came back from a 5-3 deficit to explode for 12 runs in the final three innings in the first game. In game two, the Spartans were down 2-0 early, but went off for four unanswered runs in the later innings. The third game was played under extreme weather conditions. “There was heavy wind and with the wind-chill factor it felt like about 30 degrees,” said Urso. “With the wind blowing in towards the batter it was definitely a pitchers’ day.”
Indeed it was. It was so much of a pitcher’s day that junior Ben O’ Shea threw six innings and surrendered zero base hits. It wasn’t until there was one out in the ninth inning that the Spartans gave up a hit, but they were able to keep him stranded as they won the game 1-0.
Tampa was able to take advantage of a crucial error by Georgia College in the eighth inning. With two outs and no one on, Damon Elder reached on an error, then advanced to second after Andrew Jones was plucked by a pitch.
In stepped Jake Schrader, who was able to get the biggest hit of his Tampa career thus far, driving in what proved to be the game winning run.
“I stepped in with the mindset knowing that if I get this hit, that will be the game,” said Schrader. “I knew our pitchers would hold them.” Coach Urso was pleased with Schrader’s play in the Georgia College series after some struggles against Bentley and Schrader himself was even happier.
“It takes lots of pressure off,” said Schrader. “I feel so much better now.”
Yes, the team is 6-0 and No. 1 in the country, but Coach Urso is not satisfied. “We need to cut down on strikeouts in key situations. We’re going to work hard on putting the ball in play with two strikes. We also need to get much better defensively. Our pitchers have been doing an excellent job of pounding the strike zone.”
Tampa has a four-game series ahead over a three day span. They will take on Stillman College with one game on Friday, two on Saturday and one on Sunday. Coach Urso is not worried about his pitching staff. “We haven’t had a pitching staff this deep in quite some time,” he said. “In the past we’ve had two or three quality starters and a great closer, but now we’re solid from beginning to end. Our starters’ pitch counts will be increased this weekend by about 10-15 pitches, hopefully for an extra inning to conserve our bullpen a bit.”
Urso stressed his desire for the team to “maintain our personality.” The Spartans will attempt to maintain their personality and defend their No. 1 ranking this Friday at Stillman College.
John Hilsenroth Jr. can be reached at jhilsenroth@spartans.ut.edu.