TAMPA (May 16, 2023) – The Stetson Hatters (31-21) scored nine unanswered runs on Tuesday night before the University of South Florida (19-34) got on the scoreboard and outlasted the Bulls for an 11-5 road victory at USF Baseball Stadium. The start of the game was delayed 44 minutes due to lightning in the area.

Jackson Mayo (St. Johns) went 3-for-4 with a home run in the loss for South Florida.

Stetson broke the scoring seal and took a 1-0 lead with a solo homer in the top of the third inning. The Hatters added two to their lead with a handful of seeing-eye singles in the top of the fourth for a 3-0 advantage.

The Hatters plated four more runs in the top of the fifth inning to pad their lead to 7-0 and made it a 9-0 affair with two more in the sixth frame.

After being limited to just two hits through the first five innings, USF finally put together a rally to scratch the plate in the bottom of the sixth. Drew Brutcher (Lakeland) walked with one out, and two batters later with two outs, Rafael Betancourt (Deltona) extended the inning with a base hit. John Montes (Toa Alto, Puerto Rico) then drove in Brutcher with an RBI-single.

Travis Sankovich (Uniontown, Pa.) added a run-scoring double by the Bulls in the bottom of the seventh inning.

The Hatters hit back-to-back solo homers in the top of the ninth inning before the Bulls tacked on three runs in the bottom half of the frame.

Mayo tagged a solo home run, Bobby Boser (Wesley Chapel) drilled an RBI-triple to the gap in right-center field, just missing his 16th homer of the year, and Brutcher added a sac fly to chase home Boser and account for the final score.

Notable

• Boser extended his hitting streak (11) and on-base streak (15) on Tuesday night.
• Ethan Brown (Winter Garden), who has made only one appearance since suffering a shoulder injury on April 14th, face three batters in the sixth inning and recorded one strikeout.
• Austin Grause (Tampa) produced USF's only 1-2-3 inning of work on the mound in the seventh frame.          

Up Next

The Bulls wrap up the regular season with a three-game series against No. 15 ECU on May 18-20 at USF Baseball Stadium in Tampa.

About USF Baseball

The USF Baseball program played its first season in 1966 and is entering its 58^th season in 2023 under head coach Billy Mohl (sixth season). The Bulls have made 14 NCAA Tournament appearances, including four since 2015, and earned their first-ever Super Regional berth in 2021. USF was ranked in the Top 25 by five different publications in the final 2021 polls, checking in as high as No. 16. The Bulls have won five conference tournament titles (3 Sun Belt, 1 Metro and 1 American) and six regular season championships (3 Sun Belt, 2 Metro and 1 C-USA). USF baseball players have been recognized with All-America honors 12 times, most recently with third baseman David Villar in 2018, and 18 have earned Freshman All-America accolades, most recently Drew Brutcher and Carmine Lane in 2021. Four Bulls were selected in the 2022 MLB Draft. Former 2018 first-round selection, Shane McClanahan, became the program's first-ever MLB All-Star in 2022 and was the starting pitcher for the American League.

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