TAMPA, Fla. – The Nova Southeastern University baseball team (14-11, 5-4 SSC) split Saturday's doubleheader against the No. 1 University of Tampa Spartans (21-3, 7-2 SSC), dropping the first game by a score of 6-5 and winning the series finale 7-4. The Sharks' win in game three gave NSU the series win over the number one team in the country and put themselves back into regional contention.
Game 1 – Tampa 6, NSU 5 In game one, Tampa took an early lead in the bottom of the first inning, after
Matt Hardy allowed a two-out walk, followed by a RBI-double to Tampa's J.D. Osborne. The Sharks then received a leadoff double from
Daniel Zardon in the top of the second inning and he would later score on a Tampa error after he advanced to third on a wild pitch to make the score 1-1.
NSU would then extend its lead to 4-1, beginning with a Zardon solo-homerun in the top of the fourth, followed by a two-run homerun off of the bat of
Dylan Woods. Tamp would bounce back and tie the game at 4-4 in the bottom of the fifth inning, ending
Matt Hardy's day, as head coach
Greg Brown opted for
Alexander Kline. Kline would go on to have his best outing to date, tossing four innings of scoreless baseball.
In the bottom of the ninth inning, the Spartans were threatening with runners on first and second and one out, leading Brown to hand the ball to his go-to closer
Devin Raftery. Raftery earned a groundout and a strikeout to give the Sharks momentum heading into the top of the tenth inning.
In the top of the tenth inning,
Sebastian Diaz laced a single up the middle to score
Dylan Woods from second, giving the Sharks a 5-4 lead. Raftery took the mound in the bottom of the tenth inning, but was unable to prevent the Spartans from scoring twice to win the ballgame 6-5.
Game 2 – NSU 7, Tampa 4 After letting game two slip away, the Sharks were determined to win game three and earn the series win over the top team in the country.
NSU jumped out to a 2-0 lead, thanks two a two-run mammoth homerun off of the bat of
Brandon Gomez, who finished the game a double short of the cycle. NSU would go on to extend the lead to 4-0 in the top of the third and fourth innings behind an RBI-triple from Gomez and a RBI-sacrifice-fly from
Jake Anchia, respectively.
While the offense was taking care of business at the plate,
Julian Loret de Mola was crusing on the mound. The redshirt-senior tossed six innings, allowing three runs, while striking out three in his first weekend start since opening weekend.
With the score 5-3 heading into the top of the eighth inning, the Sharks put two more runs on the board to give themselves a comfort zone for the Tampa's last two at-bats. Anchia and Woods scored on a Jancarlos Cintron single, making the score 7-3. Tampa would score one run in the bottom of the eighth inning but that was all, as Raftery shut the door on the Spartans in the ninth inning to complete the series win.
