Bulls Play Three against Army in Final Non-Conference Series
Matchups: USF (12-6) vs. Army (7-9)
Dates: Friday, March 16 – Sunday, March 18
Times: 7 p.m. | 6:30 p.m. | 1 p.m.
Location: Tampa, Fla., | USF Baseball Stadium (3,211)
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TAMPA, MARCH 15, 2018 – The University of South Florida baseball team will face Army West Point in the year's final non-conference series, set to begin Friday at 7 p.m.
The Bulls (12-6) have won five-straight games and are 2-0 to start the week with wins over FGCU and Jacksonville. Junior
Joe Genord (Lake Worth, Fla.) is hitting .471 during the streak with four doubles, two homers and eight RBI. Classmate
David Villar (Pembroke Pines, Fla.) continues to bash and is hitting .444 with two doubles, seven runs scored and five RBI over the last five games.
USF will have the same rotation as last weekend on the mound, as
Shane McClanahan (Cape Coral, Fla.) goes Friday,
Peter Strzelecki (Lake Worth, Fla.) goes Saturday and
Alec Wisely (Jacksonville) goes Sunday.
???????McClanahan is one of seven pitchers in the nation that has yet to allow an earned run this season. His 41 strikeouts are fourth in the country. Strzelecki was named to The American Weekly Honor Roll on Monday. He has surrendered 12 hits and two runs with 25 strikeouts over his last three starts.
SERIES HISTORY
The Bulls and Black Knights will meet for the first time since 2006, and Friday's matchup marks the 18th in the series dating back to 1978. USF owns a 13-4 edge and has won nine of the last 11 games. All 17 meetings have been in Tampa.
SCOUTING REPORT
The Black Knights have been in Florida all week and played the third game in as many days in DeLand before coming to Tampa for the weekend. Army split with Stetson the last two nights and fell to Rhode Island on Thursday to currently sit at 7-9 on the year. The Black Knights took 2-of-3 from Maryland, defeated Michigan and Boston College, all regional teams a year ago.
Army is led by a pair of .300 hitters, as Jon Rosoff sports the best average at .321. John McKenna is hitting .320 with three doubles and a team-high 11 RBI.
Matt Ball, Tyler Giovinco and Sam Messina have been Army's primary starters this season with four apiece. Ball leads the team with 28 strikeouts.
NOTA-BULLS
- Villar is hitting a team-high .413 and ranks seventh in the nation with nine doubles.
- USF leads the country with 54 doubles on the year and leads The American in scoring at 6.9 runs per game.
- Duke Stunkel Jr. (Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.) and JD Dutka (Suwanee, Ga.) have both hit .333 over the last five games with two doubles each. Dutka has five RBI over the stretch.
- USF's 175 hits on the year are tops in The American.
- The Bulls have had 10 or more hits in 10 games this season.
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 –
