TAMPA, Fla. (March 23, 2013) - In what was your
untraditional doubleheader Saturday at the UT Baseball Field, the
No. 3 Tampa Spartans rolled by the Rollins baseball team handing
them a 17-3 loss.
Earlier in the day, Rollins and Tampa completed Friday's
weather-delayed contest, ultimately ending 4-1 in favor of the
third-ranked Spartans.
Rollins now falls to 14-11 on the season and 1-4 in the Sunshine
State Conference while UT improves to 23-4 overall and 6-2 in the
league.
Brandon
Curson led the Tars offense as he went 3-for-4 with a double
and home run, along with two RBI and one run scored. Hunter
Mayfield, Brian
Lattanzi, Zach
Persky and Matt
Hendricks each added a hit apiece.
UT jumped out to an early lead over the Tars scoring four runs
in the opening frame taking a 4-1 lead. In the top of the first,
Evan
Rivera scored the Tars' first run on a Persky RBI single.
Rollins went scoreless through the next four innings before
Curson blasted his fourth home run of the season to leftfield to
put the Tars within two, 5-3.
The Spartans answered back in the home half with four runs,
opening the floodgates as UT scored five runs in the seventh and
three in the eighth to push the Spartans lead to a 17-3 final.
Taylor
Smith (3-2) was charged with his second loss of the season in
5.2 innings of work. Smith allowed eight run on 10 hits, while
striking out four Tampa batters.
Smith's counterpart, Jon Keller picked up the win in five
innings on the mound. He allowed one run on four hits but issued
four walks on the day.
Rollins will look to bounce back in the series finale on Sunday,
March 24. First pitch is set for 1 p.m. For the latest updates,
check out the Tars Sports Network at RollinsSports.com.
