2006 NCAA DIVISION II BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIP #1 Tampa Eliminates #12 Franklin Pierce, 13-3
Spartans first team All-Americans lead the way to National Championship game
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (June 1, 2006) - Top-ranked University of Tampa rode the backs of its two first-team All-Americans to a commanding 13-3 victory over 12th-ranked Franklin Pierce in game 12 of the 2006 NCAA Division II Baseball Championships at Paterson Field tonight.
Tampa (53-6), looking for its fourth baseball National Championship, will face 5th-ranked Cal State Chico (46-20) for the title on Saturday night at 8 p.m. (EDT). The Wildcats, winners of two previous National Championships, advanced to Saturday's title game with a 9-5 victory over No. 4 Montevallo University (43-18) in today's first game.
Franklin Pierce (46-13) concludes its most successful season in program history with a second trip to the semifinal round of the National Championships in four years. The Ravens shattered the program's single-season win record of 32 set each of the previous three seasons.
"I'm real proud of the year our team had," said Franklin Pierce Head Coach Jayson King. "We worked hard all year to make it as far as we have. You have to tip your cap to Tampa. They got great pitching and hitting, with their star players really stepping it up tonight."
Tampa's first team All-America duo of senior Lee Cruz (Pasco, Fla./Pasco Hernandez CC) and junior Sergio Perez (Tampa, Fla./Leto) led the Spartans to their 18th-straight win. Cruz paced the offense, hitting 2-for-6 with a pair of home runs, including a grand slam, and six RBI. The two homers gave him a program-record and NCAA Division II leading 26 for the season, breaking the program's single-season mark of 25 set by former Major Leaguer Tino Martinez in 1986. Perez collected his 11th win of the season (11-2), allowing three runs, two earned, on six hits with nine strikeouts and a walk in seven plus innings of work.
"My slider was really good today," said Perez. "I knew that with their hitters, (Franklin Pierce) would pretty much come out swinging and I just tried to keep them off balance."
Tampa Head Coach Joe Urso was quick to explain the rationale of pitching Perez today and not holding him for Saturday's final.
"Franklin Pierce jumped out on us 7-0 earlier this season so we knew the respect their offense deserves," Urso said. "We felt this was the game we had to win so we didn't have to worry about the (if necessary) game on Friday."
Junior Craig Corrado (Tampa, Fla.) was 3-for-5 with a stolen base and two runs scored, while classmate Roberto Mena (Rio Grande, Puerto Rico) hit 2-4 with an RBI and three runs scored. Junior Troy Ferguson (Rochester, Mass.) finished 2-5 with a double, stolen base, RBI and two runs scored.
Freshman Scott Savastano (Plymouth, Mass./Plymouth North) provided half of Franklin Pierce's six-hit output, going 3-for-4 with a double and RBI. Junior Vinny Pennell (Spencer, Mass./David Prouty) hit 1-3 with two RBI, while junior All-American Garrett Olson (Norway, Maine/Oxford Hills) finished 1-2 with two runs scored.
Junior Arric Mather (Danville, N.H./Winnacunnet) was handed just his second loss of the season (9-2), getting hit for six runs, five earned, on ten hits with five strikeouts and no walks over five-plus innings of work.
"Overall, Arric pitched pretty well," said King. "But when he made a mistake (Tampa) made him pay for it."
Tampa got on the board first with a pair of runs after two outs were recorded. Senior leftfielder Orlando Rosales (Dade City, Fla./Pasco Hernando CC) laced a double to the wall in left-center before Cruz, the ABCA/Rawlings Division II Player of the Year, smacked a towering home run over the scoreboard in left, tying Tino Martinez's school record.
The Spartans extended their lead to three runs in the fourth with senior J.R. Hopf's (Tampa, Fla.) second home run of the year, a solo shot to lead off the inning. UT took advantage of three Franklin Pierce errors in scoring a run in the fifth. Ferguson led off with a single through the right side, stole second and advanced to third when the throw got past Ravens second baseman Mike Chambers (Londonderry, N.H./Londonderry). Ferguson scored when Franklin Pierce leftfielder Randy Fenton's (Worcester, Mass./Doherty) throw home after a fly out was off the mark.
Tampa broke the game open with five in the sixth, capped by Cruz's two-out grand slam to dead center to break Martinez's home run mark. The Spartans led off the inning with three-straight singles from the bottom third of the lineup, including an RBI single down the leftfield line by Mena.
Franklin Pierce scratched together a run in the home half of the sixth to avoid the shutout. Olson was hit by a pitch and later scored on a Pennell single up the middle with two outs. Tampa scored twice in the eighth to open an 11-1 advantage, but Franklin Pierce wouldn't go down quietly, loading the bases with none out in the eighth to chase Perez. Savastano notched an RBI single through the right side to end Perez's night and Pennell drove in the second with a sacrifice fly off Tampa's first of two relievers that closed the game out.
"This was a great experience for all the young guys on the team," said Savastano. "I can't wait to get back, especially with the way this finished tonight. We will be back."