An eleven-inning win that stretched deep into Saturday night ended, daylight savings time stole an hour, and before they knew it, Sunday morning was upon them.
The NCAA top-ranked University of Tampa baseball team won two games in just over 14 hours last weekend, separated by a few precious winks of sleep. UT Head Coach Joe Urso was frank about the challenge.
“It was a tough turnaround,” he said. “The alarm went off real quick.”
The Spartans took two of three from the Grand Canyon Lopes, losing the opener of the series 3-1 on Friday before sweeping the final two.
Saturday night was the kind of evening that can build a team’s momentum heading into conference play.
Tampa starter Sean Bierman threw six innings while walking just one and striking out six. The Spartan defense though, wasn’t as prepared as he was. They committed six errors in the game leading to three unearned runs, all charged to Bierman’s line.
Tied 6-6 through nine, the game went into extras. In the top of the eleventh, Grand Canyon managed a pair of runs off Mike Adams sending the middle of Tampa’s order up in the bottom of the inning with the task of crossing a pair of runs; they found themselves more than up to the challenge.
Jake Schrader hit a tying two-run double after a walk and a hit batter, and Adam Pendleton knocked a single into rightfield to help the Spartans walk-off.
“It showed a lot of character on our part,” said outfielder Andruw Jones, who scored the winning run. “But if we play a better game, don’t make as many errors, we should never even be there.”
That’s basically where the Spartans stood heading into Sunday’s game: 15-3, but some sloppy defense and a lack of bottom of the order production had them feeling beatable. Losing two of three to Sunshine State Conference rival, Lynn University, didn’t help either.
Although the Spartans maintain the highest overall winning percentage in the conference, their 1-2 SSC record has them sitting in seventh place for the time being.
“Dropping two out of three to Lynn,” Coach Urso said, “we’re going to need some sweeps if we expect to win the conference title.”
Sunday’s game began at 11 a.m., so the Spartans were basically running on fumes. Fans in the stands wouldn’t notice a thing, as UT came out strong.
Starter Ben Brown overcame a shaky first inning to throw seven full frames while allowing just four hits.
The defense made just one error and the lineup played small ball; Connor Obrochta drove in the first run with a squeeze bunt and Damon Elder drove in the second with a two-out line drive single.
“We’re just trying to play as much small ball as possible with our two hitter and then our six, seven, and eight hitters,” Urso said. “We feel like the top of our lineup is so strong, if those guys can get on base, we feel like we can start throwing up some runs.”
Everything seemed to work efficiently until the ninth when Evan Stobbs brought up the tying run after a pair of hits, but he finished the threat and earned his fifth save by inducing a groundout.
Urso mentioned that the trouble Stobbs faced might have been brought on by the introduction of pitching twice in the same weekend, something the coaching staff is starting to ease the relievers into as the third month of the season is inching closer.
The 4-1 victory lasted just over two hours, a stark contrast to Saturday night’s four hour epic. The change seemed welcome to the coaches and players alike.
After Sunday’s game, the Spartans don’t play another 11 a.m. game for the rest of the season. 15 of their next 21 games are also played at home, heading into conference play needing sweeps, that could be key.
“Coach set the schedule up nice for us to win games,” said Jones. “And hopefully we can do that.”
The Spartans play next at 6 p.m. on March 16, when they host Florida Tech.
Miles Parks can be reached at minaret.sports@gmail.com.