USF Athletics

Bulls and Central Michigan Play Three in Tampa This Weekend

March 08, 2018

Matchups: USF (7-6) vs. Central Michigan (2-10-1)
Dates: Friday, March 9 – Sunday, March 11  
Times: 7 p.m. | 6:30 p.m. | 1 p.m.
Location: Tampa, Fla., | USF Baseball Stadium (3,211)
Follow: Stats | Listen | Watch (Saturday and Sunday)

GAME NOTES

TAMPA, MARCH 8, 2018 – The University of South Florida baseball team gets set for its fourth weekend series of the season, as it hosts Central Michigan for three games beginning Friday at 7 p.m.

The Bulls (7-6) will look to get back on the winning after a close 4-2 defeat at Jacksonville Wednesday. Junior JD Dutka (Suwanee, Fla.) had a game and career-high three hits with a double and two singles. Classmate Alec Wisely (Jacksonville) also had a double and was on base four times, as he walked three times.

Junior third baseman David Villar (Pembroke Pines, Fla.) was on a tear over the weekend series against Columbia, hitting .643 with five doubles, two homers and eight RBI. He hit .600 in five games last week with 10 RBI, six doubles, three home runs and seven runs scored. Nine of his 12 hits were extra-base knocks and he was named The American Player of the Week on Monday.

Lefty All-American Shane McClanahan (Cape Coral, Fla.) enters the weekend fresh off his second American Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Week honor. He struck out a season-high 12 batters against Columbia on March 2 and has yet to allow an earned run through 18.0 innings pitched.  

SERIES HISTORY

The Bulls and Chippewas are meeting for the first time since 2007. Central Michigan holds a 5-3 edge in the series and all eight matchups have been played in Tampa. The Bulls and Chippewas split a two-game set in 2007, though USF won the most recent encounter, 19-9.

SCOUTING REPORT

Central Michigan enters the weekend at 2-10-1 and has been getting acclimated to play in Florida, having played its last five games in the state. CMU was in DeLand at the Stetson Invitation last weekend, in Kissimmee on Tuesday and back in DeLand on Wednesday.

The Chippewas are led at the plate by junior catcher Evan Kratt, hitting .298 on the year with three doubles and eight RBI. Redshirt freshman catcher Griffin Lockwood-Powell is batting .379, but has played in just 10 games and has 18 fewer at-bats than Kratt.

Central Michigan will throw righty Michael Brettell (1-2, 9.98 ERA, 15 K) on Friday, right hander Pat Leatherman (0-2, 4.74 ERA, 25 K) on Saturday and lefty Tyler Hankins (0-1, 5.94 ERA, 21 K) on Sunday.  

NOTA-BULLS

• Villar is hitting a team-high .400 and his seven doubles rank 10^th nationally.
• USF is 24-1-1 in nonconference home series since 2012.  
• USF is second in the nation with 41 doubles on the year. It hit eight on Sunday, the most it has hit in a game over the last six seasons.
• Righty Peter Strzelecki (Lake Worth, Fla.) will start Saturday and Wisely will get the nod on Sunday. Wisely tossed 6.1 scoreless innings in game two of a doubleheader on March 3, allowing just five hits with a six strikeouts.  
• Junior Catcher Tyler Dietrich (Naples, Fla.) went 2-for-4 at JU, upping his average to .362 on the year.
• The Bulls have scored 71 runs and have 93 hits over the last eight games.
• Eight Bulls hit over .300 last week, including junior Kyle Phillips (Orlando), who had three doubles in a 13-1 win on Friday. It marked the first time since 2013 that a Bull hit three doubles in a game.
• USF tallied a season-high 17 hits on Sunday, the most it has recorded in a game since 2016.     

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.