The University of Tampa displayed why it is the No. 1 team in NCAA DII baseball by handing Lee a sound 13-1 defeat on Friday afternoon in South Regional play. The Spartans rode the four-hit pitching of Alex Canney and pounded out 17 hits in coasting into the finals of the winner’s bracket in the four-team tournament.
Canney improved his pitching record to 12-2 on the year. He worked the complete nine-inning and threw less than 100 pitches. Lee standout hurler Jack Nedrow (11-2) suffered his first loss of the season. He worked 4.1 innings. The next pitcher Colt Matthaidess retired a pair of batters. Hunter Lane came on for an inning and Nelson Smith hurled the final two frames.
Canney fanned 10 Flames and did not walk a batter. The only run he allowed came in the fourth inning when Brandon Daniels lifted a high-fly ball to deep leftfield. Tampa leftfielder Jacob Griffith tangled his feet while trying to make the catch and fell hard to the turf. He suffered a shoulder injury that allowed Daniels to circle the bases with an inside the park homerun.
Daniels also doubled in the first inning and was the only Lee hitter with two hits in the contest. Dylan Standifer and Jojo Miller had Lee’s other one-base knocks.
While the Flames were having problems with the Tampa pitcher, DJ Cumbo was leading the fired-up Spartan attack. In the fourth inning, Cumbo fouled off 13 pitches before hitting a two-run homer on the 14th pitch. He knocked in two more runs with a double in the sixth and finished his afternoon with another two-run homerun in the seventh.
J.P. Gates had four hits, including a double and scored twice. He was joined by Santiago Garavito, who had a two-base hit, two singles, an RBI and scored once. Brayden Woodburn scored three times with two hits and collected an RBI. Nico Saladino wrapped up even more damage at the bottom of the batting order with a homerun, double and a single. He collected a pair of RBI and also scored twice.
The Flames will seek to rebound on Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. when they have a rematch with Auburn Montgomery. The Warhawks remained alive in the four-team tournament by defeating Savannah State in 10 innings, 9-8. The winner of that contest will turn right around and face the unbeaten Tampa club at 5 p.m.