USF Bulls Radio

The USF baseball team scored 11 runs on 18 hits and improved their Big East record to 14-3 (26-15 overall) after defeating the West Virginia Mountaineers 11-2 on Saturday night at Red McEwen Field. Accompanied with a Louisville loss to Notre Dame, the Bulls secured a two game lead in the Big East Conference.

USF got a strong outing out of starting pitcher Derrick Stultz. Stultz threw eight innings, allowed only two runs on six hits while striking out five and surrendering no walks. Stultz improved to a record of 5-1.

Billy Gross was the starting pitcher for West Virginia. The Bulls connected for 15 hits off of Gross, while scoring nine earned runs in 4.2 innings.

The Mountaineers got things started with back-to-back singles by Justin Parks and Austin Markel in the first inning, followed by a sacrifice fly by Jedd Gyorko to put West Virginia up 1-0.

The Bulls answered right back in the bottom half of the first inning after a single by Jonathon Kosco and a double by Stephen Hunt, an RBI groundout by Todd Brazeal, which tied the score at 1-1.

USF blew the game open in the second inning. After a leadoff lineout by Trey Manz, the Bulls connected for five straight singles off the bats of Sam Mende, Junior Carlin, Peter Brotons, Ryan Lockwood and Jonathon Kosco. This put USF up 4-1. After a Hunt RBI groundout and a Brazeal RBI single, the Bulls lead West Virginia 6-1 after the second inning.

The single by Lockwood improved his hitting streak to 10 games and his reaching base safely streak to 83 games.

The Bulls scored again in the fourth inning. After a single by Hunt and a double by Brazeal, Brandon Smith drove in Hunt with a sacrifice bunt.

USF continued scoring in the fifth inning. Mende led off with a single and then stole second base. After a sacrifice bunt by Carlin moved Mende to third base, Brotons singled to drive in Mende. Lockwood followed up with an RBI triple to score Brotons from first. This put the Bulls up 9-1.

In the top of the sixth, Gyorko doubled to end Stultz streak of retiring twelve consecutive West Virginia batters. After a passed ball moved him to third base, Jerko score on an RBI groundout by Vince Belnome.

The Bulls answered right back in the bottom half of the sixth inning. Brazeal led off the inning with a single and ended up scoring on an RBI double by Trey Manz. Carlin drove in Manz with a two out RBI single, but was thrown out trying to stretch the hit into a double. The scoring put USF up 11-2.

In the ninth inning, Andrew Salgueiro came in to relieve Stultz. After a leadoff single, Salgueiro closed out the game to secure a Bulls victory.