Bulls Welcome Liberty For Weekend Series In Tampa
SERIES MATCHUP: USF vs. Liberty
WEEKEND SCHEDULE: Friday, 7 p.m.; Saturday, 6:30 p.m.; Sunday, 1 p.m.
LOCATION: Tampa, USF Baseball Stadium
FOLLOW: Live Stats, Twitter updates
@USFBaseball
RADIO LINKS: BullsUnlimited (Fri. and Sat.) | GoUSFBulls.com (Sun.)
WATCH: YouTube (Fri. and Sat.)
GAME NOTES
TAMPA, March 7, 2019 – Coming off a unique experience against the Rays in Port Charlotte, the USF baseball team resumes the regular season with a weekend series against Liberty.
The Bulls (6-4) gained some invaluable experience Tuesday in Port Charlotte with an exhibition against the Rays. Senior
Joe Genord (Lake Worth, Fla.) doubled off of 2018 Cy Young award winner Blake Snell in the first, scoring classmate
Kyle Phillips (Orlando). USF tallied two runs on Snell before he exited the game. The arms used allowed just six hits in a 7-2 defeat.
USF swept Western Michigan at home last weekend, as the offense led the way. The bats hit .337 with seven homers, slugging .615. Phillips hit .500 with two home runs, six runs and five RBI. Genord also hit .500 with a pair of home runs, six runs and five RBI. Phillips was named the American Athletic Conference Player of the Week on Monday and Genord was named to the weekly honor roll.
The weekend rotation will remain unchanged, with junior righty
Collin Sullivan (Randolph, Mass.) getting the start on Friday, senior
Alec Wisely (Jacksonville, Fla.) on Saturday and sophomore
Baron Stuart (Okeechobee, Fla.) on Sunday.
The bullpen had some positives from the exhibition in Port Charlotte on Tuesday. Junior lefty
Noah Yager (Davie, Fla.) made his unofficial debut to the 2019 season and redshirt junior righty
Dylan Burns (Vero Beach, Fla.) allowed just one hit, scattering five strikeouts over 3.0 scoreless innings.
The Matchup
The Bulls own a slim 3-1 edge over Liberty in what is a relatively short series history. The first meeting was in 2014 in Jacksonville, a game that the Bulls won. The most recent meeting was a three-game series in Tampa back in 2016. USF took 2-of-3 from the Flames that year to open the season.
Senior outfielders
Chris Chatfield (Riverview, Fla.) and
Garrett Zech (Naples, Fla.) played in all three games of that series as true freshmen. Chatfield had two hits in the series, including a double, a run and a RBI in the weekend finale. Zech also had two hits and also hit a double while scoring two runs and driving in one in the series opener.
Know the Foe
The Flames are 9-3 heading into the weekend and have some impressive wins. Liberty took down South Carolina on the road in the season opener, defeated then-No. 20 Wake Forest on Feb. 19 and have swept the last two weekend series.
The team leads the ASUN in strikeout-to-walk ratio (2.88), fielding percentage (.977), walks allowed per nine innings (3.43) and WHIP (1.12). The Flames utilize six arms primarily, and all have been effective.
Junior righty Andrew McInvale (2-0, 2.65 ERA) will start Friday, followed by sophomore righty Noah Skirrow (1-0, 1.83 ERA) and lefty Joseph Adametz (2-0, 3.24 ERA). Skirrow leads the team and is 18
th nationally with 27 strikeouts. Senior Evan Brabrand and junior Garret Price have ben stellar out of the bullpen with ERA's of 0.00 and 0.71, respectively.
Sophomore infielder Will Wagner is 27
th in the country with a .452 average to lead the offense.
Nota-Bulls
- Genord leads the Bulls with three homers and is tied for fifth in program history with 34 career long balls.
- The Bulls are 20th nationally with 1.20 home runs per game.
- Junior Jordan Santos (Tampa) is 10th in the country with 1.33 walks per game, leading the team with 12. He is batting .296 on the year.
- Genord walked four times against Western Michigan on Sunday, becoming the first Bull to do so since Kevin Merrell on April 7, 2017.
Bulls Bits
- DID YOU KNOW?: USF has the only Division I coaching staff in the state of Florida in which every member was selected in the MLB Draft – head coach Billy Mohl (2006, Philadelphia); assistants Chuck Jeroloman (2004, Boston), Chris Cates (2007, Minnesota), Brian Jeroloman(2006, Toronto). The Bulls' coaching staff has a combined 25 years of playing experience in pro baseball.
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 continued the success under first-year head coach Billy Mohl in 2018, reaching 36 wins and advancing to the semifinals of the conference tournament for the first time since 2012, while being ranked in multiple polls for the final two months. USF earned its third NCAA Regional berth in the last four seasons and had six all-conference selections in 2018. The team had four players drafted in the 2018 MLB Draft, including the program's fourth first rounder, Shane McClanahan. Junior third baseman David Villar was taken in the 11th round after tallying 24 doubles and hitting better than .370, being named first team all-conference and an All-American. The USF Baseball program has won five conference titles and the Bulls have made 13 NCAA appearances.
Follow the baseball team on social media (Twitter | Facebook | Instagram) and visit GoUSFBulls.com for the most up-to-date information.
– #GoBulls –
