War on I-4 Takes to Tampa; Bulls and Knights Do Battle This Weekend
Matchup: USF (24-13, 7-5 The American) vs. UCF (26-12, 6-6 The American)
Dates: Friday, April 20 – Sunday, April 22
Times: 7 p.m. | 6:30 p.m. | 1 p.m.
Location: Tampa, Fla. | USF Baseball Stadium (3,211)
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TAMPA, April 19, 2018 – The University of South Florida baseball team gets set for the War on I-4, hosting this year's edition against the University of Central Florida for a three-game series beginning Friday.
The Bulls (24-13, 7-5 The American) won their third-straight game in their return home Tuesday against North Florida, 7-1. Sophomore lefty
Noah Yager (Davie, Fla.) had a career night with 5.1 innings pitched in relief. He struck out a career-high 10 with just one walk.
Senior
Duke Stunkel Jr. (Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.) went 3-for-4 with a run and two RBI.
Coco Montes (Miami) had a career-high four hits with two runs in the win.
USF's pitching rotation will again start with lefty All-American
Shane McClanahan (Cape Coral, Fla.) on Friday. He's sixth nationally with 84 strikeouts and second with 15.04 strikeouts per nine innings.
Reigning American Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Week, redshirt senior
Peter Strzelecki (Lake Worth, Fla.) will start Saturday. He's fourth in the league with 64 strikeouts and leads the team with a 2.67 ERA. Righty
Collin Sullivan (Randolph, Mass.) will start Sunday.
SERIES HISTORY
The Bulls and Knights will meet for the 132
nd time Friday night when the War on I-4 resumes. USF swept UCF in Tampa from April 7-9 last season, just the third series sweep of at least three games in the history of the series. UCF took 2-of-3 from the Bulls in Orlando to end the season, then bested USF in the conference tournament. The Bulls lead the all-time series, 69-62, and own the edge in Tampa, 42-25.
SCOUTING REPORT
The Knights are 26-12 on the year and had been ranked in the top-25 for a few weeks in the midst of winning 16-of-17 from Feb. 23-March 18, which included a midweek sweep of No. 1 Florida March 6-7.
Sophomore first baseman Rylan Thomas leads The American with a .413 average and has a conference-best 10 homers. Matthew Mika is batting .326 with 23 stolen bases to rank fifth nationally. Tyler Osik is hitting .341 with a league-high 45 RBI.
UCF will begin the weekend starting righty Cre Finfrock, making his third start of the season. He's 3-0 with a 4.37 ERA. Going Saturday is righty Chris Williams, who is fourth in the league with a 1.87 ERA. He's 4-1 in nine starts with 51 strikeouts. Redshirt junior JJ Montgomery (3-2, 3.14 ERA) will get the start in Game 3.
NOTA-BULLS
- Junior David Villar (Pembroke Pines, Fla.) continues to lead USF with a .385 average and 16 doubles on the season, ranking him sixth nationally.
- The Bulls are tops in the conference with a .300 team average, a .470 slugging, 249 runs scored, 385 hits, 98 doubles and 14 triples. They sit third nationally in doubles and 14th in triples.
- Stunkel Jr. is hitting .313 against UCF in his career.
- Junior Garrett Zech (Naples, Fla.) hit his fifth home run of the year in Tuesday's win against UNF. He also has six doubles and six triples this season, the latter ranking fourth in the country.
About USF Baseball
The University of South Florida baseball team is one of the fastest rising programs in the country. The Bulls reached the NCAA Regionals in 2015 for the first time in 13 years and followed that success with a 42-19 record and second NCAA regional trip in three years in 2017. The Bulls earned just their second and third wins over top-five ranked teams with victories against then-No. 3 Florida State and at then-No. 5 Florida during the 2017 season. During the 2017 season, USF reached the 40-win mark for the first time since 1996 and entered the top-25 in the major collegiate baseball polls for the first time since 2013. The USF Baseball program has won five conference titles and the Bulls have made 12 NCAA appearances.
– #GoBulls –
