USF Vs Liberty: Series info and discussion

[BrassBulls12]

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  MAR 8 (FRI) 7:00 PM

   

  VS LIBERTY UNIVERSITY

  TAMPA, FLA.

  RADIO: BULLS UNLIMITED

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  MAR 9 (SAT) 6:30 PM

   

  VS LIBERTY UNIVERSITY

  TAMPA, FLA.

  RADIO: BULLS UNLIMITED

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  MAR 10 (SUN) 1:00 PM

   

  VS LIBERTY UNIVERSITY

  TAMPA, FLA.

   

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  LU comes in 9-3 with wins over S. Carolina, Wake Forest and Virginia Tech. With only one more series after this until conference play, it would be nice to see the starters work deep into these games. 

[jchem1995]

**** that’s impressive wins. Hope we can win a couple.

[lotsofbull99]

Even Liberty has an OCS.

[Guest Jonesy Bull]

1 hour ago, lotsofbull99 said:

Even Liberty has an OCS.

Jerry Falwell has a lot of money!

[NewEnglandBull]

56 minutes ago, Jonesy Bull said:

Jerry Falwell has a lot of money!

You mean a lot of suckers....

[Guest Jonesy Bull]

8 minutes ago, NewEnglandBull said:

You mean a lot of suckers....

I wont argue with that.

[Brad]

USF ATHLETICS GoUSFBulls.com

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Web Link: http://bit.ly/2ESgZQo

 

SERIES MATCHUP: USF vs. Liberty
WEEKEND SCHEDULE: Friday, 7 p.m.; Saturday, 6:30 p.m.; Sunday, 1 p.m. 
LOCATION: Tampa, USF Baseball Stadium
FOLLOW: Live Stats, Twitter updates @USFBaseball
RADIO LINKS: BullsUnlimited (Fri. and Sat.) | GoUSFBulls.com (Sun.)
WATCH: YouTube (Fri. and Sat.)
GAME NOTES

Bulls Welcome Liberty For Weekend Series In Tampa  
USF is 6-1 at home following last weekend’s sweep of Western Michigan

TAMPA, March 7, 2019 – Coming off a unique experience against the Rays in Port Charlotte, the USF baseball team resumes the regular season with a weekend series against Liberty.

The Bulls (6-4) gained some invaluable experience Tuesday in Port Charlotte with an exhibition against the Rays. Senior Joe Genord (Lake Worth, Fla.) doubled off of 2018 Cy Young award winner Blake Snell in the first, scoring classmate Kyle Phillips (Orlando). USF tallied two runs on Snell before he exited the game. The arms used allowed just six hits in a 7-2 defeat.

USF swept Western Michigan at home last weekend, as the offense led the way. The bats hit .337 with seven homers, slugging .615. Phillips hit .500 with two home runs, six runs and five RBI. Genord also hit .500 with a pair of home runs, six runs and five RBI. Phillips was named the American Athletic Conference Player of the Week on Monday and Genord was named to the weekly honor roll.

The weekend rotation will remain unchanged, with junior righty Collin Sullivan (Randolph, Mass.) getting the start on Friday, senior Alec Wisely (Jacksonville, Fla.) on Saturday and sophomore Baron Stuart (Okeechobee, Fla.) on Sunday. 

The bullpen had some positives from the exhibition in Port Charlotte on Tuesday. Junior lefty Noah Yager (Davie, Fla.) made his unofficial debut to the 2019 season and redshirt junior righty Dylan Burns (Vero Beach, Fla.) allowed just one hit, scattering five strikeouts over 3.0 scoreless innings. 

The Matchup

The Bulls own a slim 3-1 edge over Liberty in what is a relatively short series history. The first meeting was in 2014 in Jacksonville, a game that the Bulls won. The most recent meeting was a three-game series in Tampa back in 2016. USF took 2-of-3 from the Flames that year to open the season.

Senior outfielders Chris Chatfield (Riverview, Fla.) and Garrett Zech (Naples, Fla.) played in all three games of that series as true freshmen. Chatfield had two hits in the series, including a double, a run and a RBI in the weekend finale. Zech also had two hits and also hit a double while scoring two runs and driving in one in the series opener. 

Know the Foe
The Flames are 9-3 heading into the weekend and have some impressive wins. Liberty took down South Carolina on the road in the season opener, defeated then-No. 20 Wake Forest on Feb. 19 and have swept the last two weekend series.

The team leads the Big South in strikeout-to-walk ratio (2.88), fielding percentage (.977), walks allowed per nine innings (3.43) and WHIP (1.12). The Flames utilize six arms primarily, and all have been effective. 

Junior righty Andrew McInvale (2-0, 2.65 ERA) will start Friday, followed by sophomore righty Noah Skirrow (1-0, 1.83 ERA) and lefty Joseph Adametz (2-0, 3.24 ERA). Skirrow leads the team and is 18^thnationally with 27 strikeouts. Senior Evan Brabrand and junior Garret Price have ben stellar out of the bullpen with ERA’s of 0.00 and 0.71, respectively.

Sophomore infielder Will Wagner is 27^th in the country with a .452 average to lead the offense. 

Nota-Bulls

·   Genord leads the Bulls with three homers and is tied for fifth in program history with 34 career long balls.

·   The Bulls are 20^th nationally with 1.20 home runs per game.

·   Junior Jordan Santos (Tampa) is 10^th in the country with 1.33 walks per game, leading the team with 12. He is batting .296 on the year.

·   Genord walked four times against Western Michigan on Sunday, becoming the first Bull to do so since Kevin Merrell on April 7, 2017. 

Bulls Bits

• DID YOU KNOW?: USF has the only Division I coaching staff in the state of Florida in which every member was selected in the MLB Draft – head coach Billy Mohl (2006, Philadelphia); assistants Chuck Jeroloman(2004, Boston), Chris Cates (2007, Minnesota), Brian Jeroloman(2006, Toronto). The Bulls' coaching staff has a combined 25 years of playing experience in pro baseball.

 

[BrassBulls12]

Bulls Drop Opener to Liberty, 6-4

TAMPA, MARCH 8, 2019 – The Bulls led through five innings but were doomed by a pair of three-run frames late in Friday's 6-4 loss to Liberty.  

   
The Bulls (6-5) struck first with a two-out rally in the second. Freshman Nick Gonzalez (Tampa) walked, then junior Jordan Santos (Tampa) drove a double into right-center for the game's first run.
 
USF added another in the third, as Kyle Phillips (Orlando) led off with a single up the middle, then stole second to get himself into scoring position. Two batters later, Austin Bodrato (Northvale, N.J.) doubled down the right field line to make it 2-0.
 
The Flames plated three runs in the top of the sixth on two hits to take a lead. Bodrato immediately changed that in the bottom half with a leadoff home run to right, making it 3-3.
 
Just like the previous inning, Liberty retook the lead with another three-run output on two hits, making it 6-3. USF got one back in the eighth on a Tyler Dietrich (Naples, Fla.) RBI double, scoring Bodrato, but it was as close as the Bulls would get

Nota-Bulls

• Bodrato went 2-for-2 with a homer, double, two runs and two RBI.
• Santos had a double and was on base three times, walking for the 13^th time this season.
• Junior righty Collin Sullivan (Randolph, Mass.) bounced back with 5.1 solid inning. He allowed two hits and struck out seven, surrendering two runs for a no-decision.
• This ends the Bulls three-game winning streak and five-game home winning streak. 

Quotables
Coach Billy Mohl on Collin Sullivan's day:
"I thought he bounced back well. He got a little tired there in the sixth, his pitch count was up but it was a much better outing than last week and more of what we expect to see."

Up Next

The middle game of the three-game series is Saturday at 6:30 p.m. Senior Alec Wisely (Jacksonville, Fla.) gets the start for the Bulls.

[Dave_Glaser]

The freshman third baseman, Dylan Buck, looks overmatched at this level right now - 17 strikeouts in 43 at bats. Time to sit him down and play Dutka there with Santos playing well at second base.

[Brad]

Game Two