WINTER PARK, Fla. (April 18, 2026) - The baseball team suffered a pair of losses at the hands of the #5 Tampa Spartans on Saturday, losing 6-1 and 4-2. The Tars now stand at 27-12, 17-7 SSC on the year, while the Spartans improve to 33-7, 19-2 SSC. 

Game One
Tampa 6, Rollins 1

Fans were treated to a pitcher's duel for the first part of game one as BJ Bailey and Brett Dennis went pitch for pitch with each other for the first four innings of play. Rollins' best shot to score a run came in the third when Mauri Bejarano ripped a triple to right-center, but a strikeout to the next batter ended the inning. 

The fifth inning saw the wheels come off for the Tars. After a lead off walk, Tampa laid down a sac bunt. However, the runner beat the throw to first, putting two men on. A normal sac bunt moved both runners up, and then a single from Jack Martinez brought them both in to score. After a second out, Jake Books bounced a ball down the right foul line. To the utter shock of the entire ballpark, the ball was called fair by the home plate umpire, adding another run to the Spartans' tally. 

After a scoreless inning from Rollins, Tampa added two more runs on a wall-scraping home run off the bat of Walker Vanacek. 

Tyler Toro entered the game in the seventh, and tossed scoreless frames in the next two innings. The Tars finally broke through in the eighth with a two-out RBI single from Bejarano that brought in Jimmy Thies. 

Tampa added one in the ninth to make the final of 6-1. 

Bailey was awarded the win after going the distance with nine innings pitched, four hits, one run, and six strikeouts. Dennis took the loss with a final line of six innings, six hits, five runs, and four strikeouts. Toro had four strikeouts in relief. Bejarano was responsible for half of the team's hits. 

Game Two
Tampa 4, Rollins 2

The Spartans jumped on starter Brody Meyers quickly with a two-run home run from Brayden Woodburn in the first. Woodburn added another RBI in the third when his single brought home Jordan Evans, who had reached on an error. The Tars' defense struggled in the third, committing two errors and a wild pitch. 

Rollins threatened with runners on the corners and two outs in the third, but a flyout to right quelled the threat. After a quiet fourth, the Tars got their first run on a single to center from Collin Hughes that scored Matthew Mateo.

After the RBI single in the third, Meyers was dialed in on the mound. He retired fifteen of the next sixteen hitters he faced without allowing a hit. 

Tampa added an insurance run in the ninth when Nik Pereira was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, making it 4-1. 

The Tars showed life in the final at bat. Connor O'Sullivan led off with a single, followed by a single from Jimmy Thies. Elvin Figueroa was called on to pinch-hit, but was unable to come through after grounding into a double play on the first pitch he saw. Mateo kept the game going with a triple to left that scored O'Sullivan, but a groundout on the next batter ended the game.

The final line for Meyers read eight innings (season-high), three hits, two earned runs, zero walks and five strikeouts. John Luke Glanton earned the win with eight innings of work. O'Sullivan led the offense with three hits and a run, while Mateo collected two hits, a run, and an RBI.

Rollins will look to bounce back next weekend when they head to St. Petersburg to face the Eckerd Tritons (27-11, 15-5 SSC). It is a huge series as the two teams are neck-and-neck for second place in the SSC standings. First pitch of game one is slated for 1:00 pm on Friday, April 24.