Bulls Welcome Fordham to Tampa for A Three-Game Series

[Brad]

USF ATHLETICS GoUSFBulls.com

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Web Link: http://bit.ly/2BJVfVW

 

Matchup: USF (1-3) vs. Fordham (2-1-1)
Dates: Friday, Feb. 23 – Sunday, Feb. 25 
Times: 7 p.m. | 6:30 p.m. | 1 p.m.
Location: Tampa, Fla., | USF Baseball Stadium (3,211)
Tickets: USFBullsTix.com
Follow: Stats | Listen | 

Bulls Welcome Fordham to Tampa for A Three-Game Series 
USF and Fordham will meet for the first time since 1996 

 

TAMPA, Feb. 22, 2018 – After an exciting opening weekend again UNC, the University of South Florida baseball team is back home for a three-game series against Fordham, starting Friday at 7 p.m.

The Bulls (1-3) were tied 1-1 in the eighth inning at No. 5 Florida State on Tuesday, but surrendered four runs in the bottom half. USF got one back in the ninth before falling 5-2. 

Junior outfielder Chris Chatfield (Riverview, Fla.) went 2-for-4 with a double and a RBI and sophomore Carson Ragsdale (Wesley Chapel, Fla.) had a double and a run. 

Redshirt sophomore left-hander Shane McClanahan (Cape Coral, Fla.) will make his encore following a six scoreless, 11 strikeout outing in the season opener against UNC. He was named the American Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Week on Monday. Sophomore righty Collin Sullivan (Randolph, Mass.) struck out a career high of eight batters in his second-career start on Sunday. 

WEEKEND PITCHING MATCHUPS

Friday – LHP Shane McClanahan vs. RHP Ben Greenberg
Saturday – RHP Peter Strzelecki vs. RHP Reiss Knehr 
Sunday – RHP Collin Sullivan vs. RHP Mike Cowell

SERIES HISTORY

The Bulls and Rams are meeting for just the 14^thtime on Friday and for the first time since 1996. USF has won nine-straight games in the series. The Bulls have only lost in the first ever meeting in 1987 and again in 1992, both being one-run defeats. USF has scored at least six runs in all 11 of its wins against Fordham and is averaging 11.8 runs per victory.

SCOUTING REPORT

Thanks to a rare 80 degree February afternoon in the Bronx, the Rams played their earliest home opener in program history on Wednesday. Fordham defeated Army to improve to 2-1-1 on the year. Jake Baker leads the Rams offensively with a .333 average. Nick Labella (.308) and C.J. Vasquez (.300) have had strong starts to the season, with the former being one-of-three Rams to have tallied a team-high three RBI. The other is Billy Godrick, who has two homers. 

Brian Weissert has been stout out of the bullpen with 5.1 scoreless innings of one-hit baseball. Ben Greenberg went 3.0 innings in his lone start, did not allow a hit and struck out four. Reiss Knehr allowed three runs on two hits in two innings in his first start and Mike Cowell allowed four hits and a run on 3.0 innings. 

NOTABLES

·   The Bulls have not lost a home non-conference series of three games or more since 2012. They have won 22 of such series and split another.

·   Sophomore left hander Noah Yager (Davie, Fla.) has logged 4.0 innings this season and has allowed just three hits. He tossed 3.0 scoreless against FSU on Tuesday. 

[CousinRicky]

Hoping to get there tonight.  Had some oral surgery yesterday afternoon but not feeling too poorly. Of course that could be the pain meds talking.

[BrassBulls12]

You can watch the game on Facebook Live or follow the link to listen to Bulls kick off the weekend series against Fordham. The Bulls will send the ace, Shane Mcclanahan, while Fordham will start Ben Greenberg.  

 

http://gousfbulls.com/news/2018/2/22/baseball-bulls-welcome-fordham-to-tampa-for-a-three-game-series.aspx

 

Edited February 23, 2018 by BrassBulls12

[BrassBulls12]

That is so nasty. 

[NewEnglandBull]

Bulls get shut out...so much for a sweep...

[JoeB]

Don't win too many games when you get 1 hit.  Embarassing offense tonight.  Shane deserved better. 

[JTrue]

2/3 is the name of the game. In the world of college baseball with such limited scholarships, most teams have an ace that's capable of shutting you out in the opener. Depth is what separates the good teams from everyone else. You get 11.7 scholarships in college baseball. Generally, a team spreads those out across their roster. So if you take UF as your benchmark, no one on their team is getting a full ride. Your ace is probably only getting 50%, at best. Their roster is full of guys taking less scholarship money to go there. That works when you're the defending national champs. Good players will play for less to play on a good team. Lesser teams have to lure kids by giving them more money, which means the rest of the roster gets much less. So if you're a mid-level team, you throw serious money at one or two guys to get them to commit, but it depletes the remaining pool and your depth suffers. University of Tampa might get a guy here or there that could easily play for a solid D1 school and be a solid contributor, but if he needs the money, he ends up at Tampa. So they give 3-4 guys solid money, but the rest of the roster gets peanuts. So on any given night, their starter can go toe to toe with a solid D1 team with their ace on the mound, but then the next night of a 3 game set, they're throwing guys that have no chance. Likewise, their top 2-3 hitters are probably getting good money to play at UT, but the rest of the lineup isn't getting much and those guys can't hang with a D1 team for 9 innings, much less a weekend series. I imagine Fordham isn't much different. 

Edited February 24, 2018 by JTrue

[BrassBulls12]

I posted this in the baseball club,  but this is what I thought about tonight. 

Disappointing loss here with the ace on the mound and a team we should have beaten, but not all negative.

Thought we gave up the two runs instead of them earning them. Seems like we got a little flustered when they got a runner in scoring position. Looked like there were issues with the signs and then we threw a ground ball away with two outs to let the runner score. 

I'm not too concerned about the lack of offense tonight. We hit a lot of balls hard that just didn't find any grass. Phillips almost tied the game in the ninth, but the LF made a great play, which was a common theme tonight--we just didn't catch the breaks. The Fordham pitcher threw pretty well and did a good job working from ahead, forcing our hitters to fight up-hill battles. 

McClanahan threw a solid six innings, striking out nine, and only allowing the two unearned runs. However, the biggest positive for me tonight was Cruz, in relief.  He gave us three innings, with two hits and no runs, while striking out four. We were all wondering about the pen this season and he looked really good tonight. He would have bridged the gap perfectly to Perez, had we provided the run support. 

Overall, I always want to see the Bulls win and we do need to start putting more numbers in the W column. Unfortunately, it just wasn't our night, but I am confident we will take the next two games. 

[CousinRicky]

Thanks Brass.  Couldn't make it out and enjoyed reading your recap.

[BrassBulls12]

1 hour ago, Bourbon Bull said:

Thanks Brass.  Couldn't make it out and enjoyed reading your recap.

No problem. There really was just something in the air last night that called for a Fordham win. We hit a solid line drive but it bounced off the pitchers butt and the SS made a play to throw us out. Story of the night really  

Thanks to brad for setting up this thread properly. I originally planned to set up the article the way he usually does but all the hyper links threw me off. 

Edited February 24, 2018 by BrassBulls12