No. 1 Tampa Claims SSC Doubleheader Over Baseball

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – The Eckerd College baseball team fell to No. 1 University of Tampa in a Sunshine State Conference doubleheader on Saturday afternoon at the Turley Athletic Complex.

The Tritons (21-16, 8-10 SSC) fell to the Spartans (39-2, 14-1 SSC) in game one in a close 5-4 battle, while dropping game two, 7-0.

Tampa 5, Eckerd 4

The Spartans committed a season-high five errors as Eckerd nearly pulled a come-from-behind win in the opening game of Saturday's doubleheader.

Tampa's Giovanny Alfonzo singled in the Spartans first run of the game in the second inning, junior Nick Tindall added a three-run home run in the third inning and junior Stephen Dezzi singled in the Spartans final run of the game in the fourth as Tampa climbed to a 5-0 lead.

Senior Mike Vavasis got the Tritons' offense going in the bottom half of the fifth inning, crushing a two-out, three-run home run over the left field fence to cut the Spartans lead, 5-3.

Eckerd added its final run in the sixth inning after freshman Lucas Luopa reached base on a bunt single. Luopa would later score on two Spartans' throwing errors after a successful delayed steal.

The Tritons threatened to tie the game up at five in the seventh after placing runners on second and third base with one out but were unable to push the runs across.

Senior Kevin McNorton earned the win in relief to improve to 4-0 on the season for the Spartans. McNorton tossed the final 3.1 innings and allowed just one hit and struck out two.

Tampa 7, Eckerd 0

Senior Preston Packrall tossed his second complete game of the season as he held off Eckerd's offense in game two.

The Spartans tabbed the game-winning run in the second inning on an RBI single to right field from Zach Gawrych.

Tampa collected one run in the third, one in the fourth and added a four-run fifth inning to extend its lead to 7-0.

Seniors Tyler Ding, Michael Danner and Gawrych each collected three hits, while Junior Mike Abraham singled twice for the Tritons.

Packrall improved to 6-0 on the season as he allowed just five hits and one walk and struck out two.

UP NEXT: Eckerd will travel to Lake Wales, Fla., on Monday, April 14, and face Warner University in a game scheduled at 4 p.m.