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TAMPA (April 15, 2015)—Three home runs, including a game-changing Luke Borders grand slam in the sixth inning , led the USF baseball team to a gritty 11-9 win over Stetson Wednesday night. The Bulls improved to 25-12-1 on the season with the win while Stetson dropped to 19-19.
“I told the team that they're not all going to be easy,” head coach Mark Kingston said. “In close games, we just have to keep fighting and we did that tonight. Our offense picked up our pitching and that's what you have to have. It's always a team effort.”
Luke Borders' first career grand slam came at a pivotal moment as the Bulls were trailing, 5-3, to start the bottom of the sixth. Austin Lueck homered to start the inning before a Daniel Portales single and Kyle Teaf walk put two on for Kevin Merrell. Merrell laid down a sacrifice bunt to move the runners into scoring position before three straight walks allowed one run to score.
Luke came to the plate and worked a full count before hitting his second home run of the season over the right field wall to put the Bulls up 10-5.
The Hatters would plate four runs in the seventh and eighth innings but a Maglich RBI single in the bottom of the eighth would help the Bulls hang on for the win.
Stetson got off to an early lead, plating two runs in the first on a two-RBI single by Josh Powers. The Hatters would take a 5-2 lead by the fifth inning on a two-run homer by John Fussell in the third and a Will Mackenzie solo home run in the fourth.
Levi Borders hit his seventh home run of the season in the bottom of the first to pull the Bulls within one. In the second, Lueck hit an RBI single up the middle to score Luke Borders and tie the game. USF got an easy RBI in the fifth as Luke Borders drew a bases loaded walk to plate Levi and put the Bulls within two of the Hatters.
The Borders brothers each had stellar nights at the plate as they both finished 3-for-3 with a home run. Luke had two runs and five RBI on the night while Levi had four runs and one RBI. Levi was once again a double shy of hitting for the cycle as he finished the night with a single, triple, home run, walk and a hit-by-pitch.
Lueck also had a strong night at the plate, hitting his fifth home run of the season, as he went 3-for-5 with a run and two RBI.
Ryan Valdes earned the win for the Bulls after throwing 3.1 innings and giving up four runs on five hits while striking out four. Tommy Peterson earned his league-leading 12th save of the season throwing 1.2 innings in relief and giving up just one hit.
Stetson used eight pitchers on the night with Adam Schaly taking the loss. The southpaw gave up four runs and four walks in just one-third of an inning.
USF is back in action this weekend as they travel to Memphis for another conference series. The first place Bulls will battle the second place Tigers April 17-19.
For more information on the USF baseball team, follow @USFBaseball on Twitter.
- #GoBulls -
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