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DeLand, Fla. (April 1, 2014) – USF took a 3-1 lead but eventually fell 6-3 to Stetson Tuesday night in the first game of a midweek series at Melching Field.

The Bulls got on the board first in the third inning when Austin Lueck hit a two-out double to right-centerfield and later scored on a Kyle Teaf (Tallahassee) double down the leftfield line to go ahead 1-0.

In the bottom half of the frame, Stetson knotted the game at one apiece with a bases loaded RBI groundout.

USF retook the lead in the next half inning that began with back-to-back singles by Daniel Portales (Tampa) and Lawrence Pardo (Miami).  After a sacrifice bunt moved them both into scoring position, Levi Borders (Winter Haven) was intentionally walked to load the bases.  Andres Leal (Tampa) came in to pinch-hit and smacked the first he saw into centerfield for a sacrifice fly.  Nik Alfonso (Tampa) closed out the scoring for the Bulls with a RBI single to right field.

Just like the prior inning, the Hatters responded scoring three runs of their own to take the lead for good.  Tyler Bocock had a RBI double to make it a 3-2 contest before Garrett Russini hit a full count pitch down the right field scoring two more runs putting Stetson ahead 4-3.

In the sixth, Patrick Mazeika increased the lead with a run scoring double while Russini added another RBI double in the eighth to cap the scoring in the ballgame.

Lueck went 3-for-4 with a walk and run scored while Pardo was 2-for-4 and crossed the plate once.  Pardo also started the game on the mound going three innings allowing one run on four hits and three walks while striking out three.

Josh Thorne earned the win for Stetson tossing just 0.2 innings but got the Hatters out of a key jam early in the game.  Tyler Warmoth picked up his sixth save of the season throwing 1.1 innings of scoreless ball.  Russini paced the offense going 3-for-5 with three RBIs while Mazeika and Piatnik each had two hits apiece.

The two sides will conclude their midweek series tomorrow afternoon when they square off at 4:00 p.m. at Melching Field.