USF baseball, coming off of a strong win on the road against Bethune Cookman on Tuesday night, finally returns home to take on Louisville in a huge Big East showdown.
USF, 26-12 (10-2), sits in first place in the Big East standings, but the Louisville Cardinals are right behind them at 26-11 (8-4) and are coming off of a huge 21 to 4 win over Indiana. This 3-game series could determine who wins the regular season Big East title (first game tonight starts at 7PM, second game is Saturday at 12 NOON, and the series ends on Sunday with a 1PM showdown).
The Saturday game has been moved to 12 noon due to the bad weather expected in Tampa tomorrow (rain chances expected to be close to 80% tomorrow with severe weather, so bring your gloves and a canoe).
The Saturday game has been moved to 12 noon due to the bad weather expected in Tampa tomorrow (rain chances expected to be close to 80% tomorrow with severe weather, so bring your gloves and a canoe).
Louisville is led by sophomore infielder Ty Young (5-10 173-pounds) who is batting .370 with 5 home runs, 29 RBIs, and has 9 steals on the season. Junior 2B Nick Ratajczak (5-10 180-pounds) is batting .349 with 14 RBIs (solid contact hitter). Sophomore outfielder/catcher Jeff Gardner (6-2 210-pounds) is batting .322 with 2 home runs and has 22 RBIs. Senior outfielder Stewart Ijames (6-1 211-pounds) is batting .296 with 10 home runs and has 43 RBIs (big power bat). Junior 1B Zak Wasserman (6-6 223-pounds) is batting .359 with 5 home runs and has 21 RBIs. Keep an eye out for Adam Engel who is batting .322 with 1 home run and 12 RBIs, but has 28 steals on the season. The Cardinals have a very strong batting order and with Engel going damage on the bases, the USF pitching staff will have a real challenge. Look for Barbosa to set the stage for the series by attacking the strike zone and getting the Card hitters to swing and miss throughout the series.
The Cardinal pitching staff is led by sophomore RHP Jeff Thompson (6-6 245-pounds) who is 7-1 on the year (3.61 ERA) while working 52 innings, allowing 46 hits, 18 walks, and has 55 strike outs on the season. Freshman RHP Jared Ruxer (6-3 185-pounds) is 5-0 on the year (2.58 ERA) while working 38.1 innings, allowing 32 hits, 11 walks, and has struck out 21 batters on the season. Senior RHP Derek Self (6-3 210-pounds) is 0-1 with 7 saves on the season while working 21 innings, allowing 18 hits, 2 walks and has 11 strike outs on the year. Junior RHP Matt Koch (6-3 204-pounds) is 0-1 with 4 saves while working 16.1 innings, allowing 22 hits, 4 walks, and has 22 strike outs on the year. The Cardinals have a lot of strong arms, both in their bullpen and in the starting rotation. USF has been swinging a hot bat lately, led by Todd Brazeal and James Ramsay. They will have to continue to swing away and tack on runs to support the pitching staff.
This is a critical series for both sides. USF is in first place and could distance themselves even more with a couple wins. Lville is hoping to knock off the Bulls and make the Big East title race even tighter (UCONN still lingering as well). This will be a fun series to watch.
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