NEW ORLEANS, MARCH 31, 2017 – Leading, 3-0, through five innings, the University of South Florida baseball team was on the wrong end of a big late inning, as Tulane drove in five in the seventh to lead a come-from-behind 6-4 win to open American Athletic Conference action Friday night.    

With no score and two hits from both sides in the top half of the fourth, the Bulls (23-4, 0-1 AAC) got their first extra base hit on a Luke Borders (Winter Haven, Fla.) double to right center. Sophomore Joe Genord (Lake Worth, Fla.) followed with a deep RBI double to the wall in left, as it was the second of three-straight two-baggers. Junior Duke Stunkel Jr. (Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.) providing the last to score Genord. Sophomore David Villar (Pembroke Pines, Fla.) then singled up the middle to score Stunkel Jr. and make it 3-0.

The Bulls were rolling along until the Green Wave (11-15, 1-0) got on the board with a run in the sixth, then erupted for five in the seventh to take a 6-3 lead. In the decisive seventh, Tulane clubbed six hits, but only three left the infield.

The Bulls put two men on in the eighth before stranding both, then had two on in the ninth with nobody out. But a double-play silenced the threat, advancing a man to third with two gone. Stunkel Jr. brought in a run to make it 6-4, then Villar singled to put runners on the corners before a slow roller to second by sophomore Tyler Dietrich (Naples, Fla.) and a close play at first ended the game.

Key Stats

·         Five Bulls recorded multi-hit games led by sophomore Chris Chatfield (Riverview, Fla.) who went 3-for-4.  

·         Borders went 2-for-4 with a run, Stunkel Jr. went 2-for-4 with a run and two RBI, Villar went 2-for-5 with a RBI and sophomore Coco Montes (Miami) went 2-for-5 with a run.

·         Starter Phoenix Sanders (Gainesville, Fla.) went 6.1 innings, allowed three runs on four hits while striking out six.

·         Junior Joe Cavallaro (Venice, Fla.) was creditd with the loss, as he allowed five hits and three runs in just 0.1 innings.  

Notables

·         The Bulls had won 15-straight conference openers prior to the loss. The last time they lost a conference opener was 2001 when they were in Conference USA, as it was also a defeat at Tulane.

·         USF clubbed double-digit hits for the 17th time this year and at least 13 hits (14) for the ninth time. It was the third time it had produced 14 hits.

Up Next

The Bulls and Green Wave play the middle game of this AAC opening series Saturday at 5:00 p.m.

About USF Baseball

The University of South Florida baseball team is one of the fastest rising programs in the country. Under the guidance of head coach Mark Kingston, the Bulls reached the NCAA Regionals in 2015 for the first time in 13 years and USF followed that success with a consensus Top 10 recruiting class. Five players from that recruiting class were everyday starters in 2016 including outfielder Chris Chatfield (Riverview, Fla.), who led the team in home runs, and catcher Joe Genord (Lake Worth, Fla.), who was named the 2016 PGCBL Player of the Year. The Bulls won series from two ranked teams in 2016 (No. 21 East Carolina, No. 25 Michigan State, began the 2017 season with a series win over Iowa and earned just it's second win over a top-five team with a 4-2 victory against No. 3 Florida State on Feb. 21. The win over FSU was part of the best start in program history thanks to a 19-game winning streak, the second-longest in USF Baseball records.

The USF Baseball program has won five conference titles and the Bulls have made 11 NCAA appearances. Follow the baseball team on social media (Twitter | Facebook | Instagram), visit GoUSFBulls.com for the most up-to-date information, and purchase tickets for upcoming games at USFBullsTix.com. For tickets, contact the USF Ticket Office at 1-800-Go-Bulls or by going online to USFBullsTix.com.

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