USF Baseball: A Nail Biting Win Over FAMU

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The USF Bulls are coming off a walk-off loss to the FGCU Eagles to start the week. They return to Red McEwen Field to host the FAMU Rattlers. The Rattlers, like FGCU, are a fellow Florida team. In the game against the Eagles, the Bulls stole five bases, the fourth time that they stole four or more bases in a game. Under a cloudless beautiful blue sky, the game started on an early Florida evening. The visitors were in all-black uniforms with orange numbers. USF wore green tops with white pinstripe pants. On their green tops, they had neon yellow numbers and names. The last time the Bulls lost to the Rattlers was 3/11/20, four years ago when they won 5-4 in 10 innings.

At the start of the game, the USF Bulls pitchers struggled. The Bulls got out of the first two innings without allowing a run. In the third inning, FAMU got on the board with a string of hits. With those hits came three runs. At that point with their pitcher dealing, it looked like the Bulls were going to suffer another loss. But that all changed just an inning later as USF answered and tied the game at three with three runs in the fourth inning. This is when the game got interesting because in just the next inning the Bulls scored two runs and had a 5-3 lead. FAMU made the game a bit closer scoring a solo run in the sixth. This is the part of the game late when runs come big. Those runs were scored by the USF Bulls.

Photo Credit: Bradley Walker NGSC Sports

The Bulls scored four total runs in the seventh and eighth innings. Thank goodness they did because the Rattlers had the tying run up to bat in the final frame. The game ended with a 9-6 win for USF. This was a game that tested USF. It looked like in the start it would be a blowout because they were struggling to throw strikes. There were bright moments in the game like center fielder’s Jackson Mayo 11-game hit streak. Catcher Matthew Buffington took what many would consider a beating. He took many balls off the chest protecting them from becoming wild pitches. Buffington caught a foul ball on an important play to keep the Rattlers off the board.

He left the game after taking a ball off his glove hand it looked like he had it taped up. The team doctor came out and he left the game. Ben Rozenblum moved from first base to catcher in the final inning. The USF Bulls had 12 total hits there were four players with two hits. Those players were Ben Rozenblum, Stewart Puckett, Matt Buffington, and Jaden Ross. Logan Bevis came in to finish the game. Rattlers starting pitcher Dallas Tease shined lasting four and 1/3 innings. What was cool was to see Andrew Ginther for FAMU who a sidearm pitcher is. We have not seen a pitcher like that for quite a while. The Bulls now will start their conference play as they have the Memphis Tigers coming in starting on Friday for a three-game series.