Jake Books, senior outfielder, leads the Spartans team in doubles and is second in on-base percentage, slugging, runs batted in, and home runs. Photo courtesy of Hannah Walls.
The University of Tampa Spartans baseball team extends their winning streak to eight games.
–
By Jeremy Fishman
TAMPA, Fla. — Over the weekend, the University of Tampa Spartans baseball team rallied in all three games against the Florida Tech Panthers. As the race to win the conference winds down, the Spartans’ sweep brings their magic number down to one game.
Tampa has won eight games in a row with six remaining. They face Eckerd on Friday, May 1. One win against the Tritons will clinch the Sunshine State Conference for the sixth straight season.
On Friday, April 24, Robert Satin, junior left-hander, took the mound for Tampa one week removed from a complete game against Rollins. He allowed a leadoff double but struck out the next two. Marshall Burke, junior infielder, hit a two-out single, but Satin got out of the jam, inducing a groundout to shortstop. In the bottom of the first, Tampa loaded the bases but failed to score.
The game stayed scoreless until the bottom of the third. Jhoander Irigoyen, senior catcher, led off the inning with a walk. Jesse Ponce, junior shortstop, hit a bloop single into left field, scoring Irigoyen and giving the Spartans a 1–0 lead.
In the top of the sixth, the Panthers answered. A one-out single and then an RBI triple from Marcello Cortale, freshman outfielder, tied the game. Burke followed that with an RBI single and the Panthers took a 2–1 lead.
It didn’t take long for the Spartans to respond. With two outs in the sixth, Jordan Evans, senior outfielder, hit a line drive over the left-field wall to tie the game at two.
Luke Fiker, junior right-hander, entered in relief of Satin. He pitched a scoreless seventh, eighth, and ninth innings, giving the Spartans a chance to walk off the game.
Evans led off with a single and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt from Jake Books, senior outfielder. The Panthers intentionally walked Brayden Woodburn, senior second baseman, with the bases open. They changed pitchers with Irigoyen due up, and he lined the first pitch he saw directly at Cortale in left field. Thinking the ball was caught, Evans headed back to second, but the ball popped out of Cortale’s glove.
The momentum from the 104-mph line drive carried the ball to the wall. Instead of chasing it, Cortale crouched down and stared at his glove as Evans came across the plate to score. The Spartans ran onto the field to celebrate the walk-off 3–2 win.
“I knew the opportunity was going to come to finish the game, for us to get the win, and that’s what I did,” said Irigoyen.
Saturday’s doubleheader served as UTampa’s Strike Out Cancer event, where each player’s video board graphic honored someone in their life affected by cancer. Brody Turer, a high school senior committed to UTampa’s junior varsity team, attended the game after beating leukemia. He was honored by multiple players, including his brother Jake Turer, a sophomore infielder.
In game two of the series, B.J. Bailey, a graduate left-hander, started on the mound and sought to keep up the Spartan momentum. He pitched a scoreless frame, but Tampa didn’t score either. In the top of the second, Burke led off with a home run and the Panthers led 1–0.
The lead would not last for long as Ponce hit an RBI double to left, tying the game at 1–1. In the bottom of the third, Gunnett Carlson, junior first baseman, hit a go-ahead single, and the Spartans had their first lead of the day. Both teams went scoreless in the fourth, but in the bottom of the fifth, Carlson hit a sacrifice fly to give Tampa a 3–1 lead.
In the bottom of the sixth, the Spartans loaded the bases for Books. He hit a double into right-center field, two runs scored, but as Evans came around to score, he tripped and fell, forcing him back to third. He scored one batter later, when Woodburn hit a sacrifice fly, and the Spartans increased the score to 6–1.
Despite his only 1–2–3 innings in the first, Bailey threw six innings of one-run ball, five hits, and six strikeouts.
“You want to go out there right away and punch them in the mouth, but if it takes you a little time to get settled in, it’s okay as long as you compete,” said Bailey.
Tobin Moran, senior right-hander, relieved Bailey in the seventh. He pitched two scoreless innings before allowing an RBI double in the ninth. Moran completed the inning and earned his second save of the season.
After a quick break, game three of the series got underway. Head coach Joe Urso handed the ball to John Luke Glanton, senior right-hander, who had given up just four earned runs across his previous 29 innings of work. However, the first two batters reached on a double and a single, and then he gave up a sacrifice fly and the Panthers had an early lead.
For the third game in a row, the Spartans answered right back. Blake Holshouser, junior right-hander, allowed a leadoff walk to Evans, and Woodburn brought him in on a hustle triple into right-center. Irigoyen singled, scoring Woodburn, and Tampa had a 2–1 lead.
After a quick second inning, the Panthers led off with back-to-back singles in the top of the third. Adrian Dominguez, senior infielder, doubled to center to score one and tie the game, and two batters later, Burke continued his hot series with an RBI groundout, putting the Panthers ahead 3–2.
In the middle of the rally, the Panthers’ dugout called for Scott Brickett, Tampa’s head athletic trainer, to run over. A few pitches later, the game was delayed due to a medical situation involving Holshouser. Paramedics rushed to the field, placed him on a stretcher, and transported him in an ambulance. The nature of the incident and his condition were not immediately known.
Cristian Montes, junior right-hander, replaced Holshouser out of the bullpen. Books led off and welcomed him with a towering home run to center field to tie the game. Montes walked Woodburn, and Carlson, and had to face Walker Vanecek, junior outfielder, with one out. On a 2–1 pitch, Vanecek hit the ball over 380 feet down the left-field line, clearing the netting. The Spartans took a 6–3 lead.
In the bottom of the fourth, Evans singled and then stole second base, setting up Books to bring him in on an RBI double.
In the top of the fifth, trying to chip away at the Spartans’ lead, Justis Meadows, freshman outfielder, homered to left center, cutting the deficit to 7–4. However, they did not score again. Glanton recorded a scoreless sixth and pitched out of a jam in the seventh to finish his outing.
The Spartans added one more run via a passed ball in the bottom of the eighth and won the game 8–4, sweeping the series.
“Anytime you stack wins, it’s always good [during] the last month of the season,” said assistant coach Jose Jimenez. “Anytime you win, and you can expand your conference lead, it’s great.”
Jimenez is looking forward to the team improving their execution and feeling good about themselves with the playoffs just two weeks away.
Jordan Evans, senior outfielder, hit his team-leading seventh home run against Florida Tech in game one. He celebrates the game-tying home run at home plate with Cooper Jimenez, the Spartan bat boy. Photo courtesy of Hannah Walls.