Photo courtesy of Lexi Smith.
The University of Tampa baseball team played three games this weekend against Post University, getting them prepared for conference games, hoping to chase a three-peat. Fun games were held by Greek Life, keeping the fans engaged throughout nine innings.
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By Lilly Bouchard
TAMPA, Fla. — As UTampa baseball let up 10 runs in the first two games against Post, they entered their last game with a stronger defense, beating Post in a shutout.
After UTampa’s last two wins against Post this past weekend at Bailey Field, they looked to close them out for their final game of the three-game series. Adjustments had to be made to get away with the win since on Saturday’s Valentine Red Out game, the Spartans struggled defensively, letting up eight runs. Yet their offense pulled through, scoring 19 runs to walk away with a victory, which Jhoander Irigoyen had a huge role in.
“The pitching, we weren’t doing the job properly yesterday, but today we had B.J Bailey, he did a great job, and that is why we could come out as a team and do well offensively,” said Irigoyen.
Head coach Joe Urso said that the Spartans had a “mental lapse defensively.”
“I’ve never seen my team play that bad defensively. We went a couple of weekends with no errors, and yesterday was a five-error game, very uncharacteristic of us,” Urso said.
They turned that around with only one error in Sunday’s game.
Irigoyen, a senior coming off two back-to-back titles, led the team offensively this past weekend with three RBIs on Friday and four RBIs on Saturday, going two-for-two at the plate.
“The freshmen have a big responsibility knowing that the team is looking for another natty,” Irigoyen said. “They have to learn from the others and lock in and work together.”
Irigoyen explained that they do bible study every weekend and preach as a ritual.
“Most guys on the team have a faithful pathway, and I think that has contributed a lot to our team and come out as a family and win many games,” said Irigoyen.
Urso believes that the team has to be a family to see success as well. With 23 new players coming in this season, including Jesse Ponce, junior shortstop, and Gunnett Carlson, senior first baseman, they talk about their strategies to follow up on their success.
“Bringing in 23 guys and seeing them coming together as a family as we preach to be, I am seeing signs of that,” said Urso.
Carlson, a transfer from Rice University, started off the game in the bottom of the second with two RBIs, giving the Spartans a two-run lead.
“We knew someone was going to have to do that, and it is cool that it got to be me to get it started,” Carlson said.
“We are supposed to win, and I don’t like losing very much,” Carlson said. “Tampa is definitely my final stop; there is no place like it.”
Greek Life hosted fun games throughout the game. Events such as a corn-eating competition between different fraternities in between innings and a “Junk in your Trunk” game, where frat brothers tried shaking out all of the balls of a tissue box wrapped around their waist.
The sororities had a costume race, running the perimeter of the field in costumes to see who was the fastest, as well as a poster competition where the audience got to vote who had the most artistic one.
There is a lot of new talent that has entered the program, and a lot of pressure for the three-peat.
“We will see if the team is a championship team or not,” said Urso.
They start their first conference game next week against Saint Leo at 6 p.m. on Feb. 20 at the Tampa Baseball Field.