Genord’s Walk Off Homer Extends Win Streak

[Brad]

USF ATHLETICS GoUSFBulls.com

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Genord’s Walk Off Homer Extends Win Streak

Joe Genord led off the ninth with a walk off homer to center field; Bulls win 14^th straight

 

TAMPA, MARCH. 12, 2017 – Though it had gotten accustomed to winning with ease the last few games, the University of South Florida baseball team prevailed in dramatic fashion Sunday on a walk-off homer sweep Valparaiso with a 6-5 win.

The Bulls (15-1) tallied in the first inning, but we answered by the Crusaders (6-8), who took a lead in the third, as they loaded the bases with no outs and came away with two runs.

USF regained momentum in the fourth with four runs, capped off by a Luke Borders (Winter Haven, Fla.) two-run homerun to right field, making 5-1.

Valpo cut into the lead in the fifth with a pair of runs, making it 5-4. The bases were fortunately left loaded to preserve the edge. After two outs in the top of the eighth inning, a single, stolen base and a second single scored the tying run, making it 5-5. 

The stalemate set up sophomore Joe Genord (Lake Worth, Fla.) for the decisive at bat in the ninth. On a 2-2 count, Genord skyrocketed a pitch to center and watched it carry over the wall for the win.

Key Stats

• Genord finished 2-for-5, while sophomore Coco Montes (Miami) led the team with a 3-for-5 afternoon and two runs scored.
• Junior Duke Stunkel Jr. (Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.), redshirt classmate Andres Leal (Tampa) and Borders each tallied two hits.
• Sophomore Andrew Perez (Orlando) logged 1.1 perfect innings of work in relief and picked up his second win of the season.

Notables

• The Bulls 14-game win streak ties the third-longest in program history and it is the second-longest active streak in the nation. 
• The Bulls’ bats reached 15 hits for the fourth time week.
• USF has now swept three-straight series and has won all four of its weekend series.
• Genord’s ninth-inning bomb was the first walkoff homerun for USF since March 29, 2015.

 

Up Next

The Bulls host Harvard for four games this weekend, with first pitch in the series set for Friday at 6:30 p.m. 

[bulls phanatic]

That's awesome! Is Harvard any good?

[JoeB]

Great walkoff win.  It was fun being at the stadium for this one.

[JoeB]

18 minutes ago, bulls phanatic said:

That's awesome! Is Harvard any good?

Harvard is 5-3.  They just lost 3 out of 4 to Jacksonville this past wkd.

[charsibb]

32 minutes ago, bulls phanatic said:

That's awesome! Is Harvard any good?

No. They're horrible. RPI is 200+

We'll probably drop even if we sweep all 4 since the SOS is so bad.

 

[smazza]

amazing streak

[bullsmeanbusiness]

BaseBulls are ranked #25 in at least one poll this week!

 

[jasonb56]

So many great teams in the state... great to see us among them!

[Mama_Bull]

USF just missed cracking the top 25 in Perfect Game.

" In addition, Perfect Game welcomes both Baylor (19) and Florida Gulf Coast (22) to the Top 25 rankings this week after their impressive starts to the 2017 season. South Florida and St. John's were especially tough omissions this week, while Oklahoma, Missouri and Louisiana Tech are among the other teams making the loudest cases for inclusion.

https://www.perfectgame.org/Articles/View.aspx?article=13620

 

[JTrue]

USA Today and Baseball America usually release their polls later in the day on Mondays. We're deep in the "others" category from last week, not sure our sweep gets us into the top 25 this week.

http://www.ncaa.com/rankings/baseball/d1/usa-today-coaches-poll

http://www.baseballamerica.com/college/top-25-tracker-march-6-college-rankings/#YvTvB9bFxtjyewZu.97