The Weekend Wrap-Up: 3/14-3/16 Edition

Baseball

The Bulls played a three game series against Rhode Island this weekend. USF won the first three, but dropped the third in high scoring fashion. Casey Mulholland continued his hot start to the season by tossing his first complete game of the season and giving up only one earned run in the first game (which the Bulls won 5-1). He was previously named The American Pitcher of the Week for last week.

The Bulls needed some late game dramatics to pull off the comeback victory in the second game of the series (a 4-3 win). USF was down 3-2 in the ninth inning and were looking for a miracle- and got it in an unlikely fashion. After a lead off walk by Buddy Putnam, Rhode Island screwed up back to back sacrifice bunt plays and allowed the batter (or bunter in this case) to reach base both times, thus resulting in the Bulls having the bases loaded with no outs. Rhode Island pitcher Brad Applin (after getting a strikeout) then hit the next batter to force in the tying run and surrendered the game-winning run to Luke Maglich on a walk-off single to right field. The Bulls only finished with four hits, but thanks to some solid pitching they were able to hang around.

The scoreboard could hardly contain the third game of the series, which ended up being a 16-13 loss for USF. Offense was definitely on display Sunday- in total there were 32 hits between the two teams. However, the main story of the game was defensive errors by the Bulls. Three errors led to 10 unearned runs cashed in by Rhode Island. Luke Maglich finished hitting 4-6 with three RBIs for USF, including an RBI triple.

Men's Golf

The men's golf team competed in the Seminole Intercollegiate Tournament in Tallahassee over the weekend. The Bulls tied for second place as a team with #12 FSU (the Bulls are ranked #29). Junior Trey Valentine took home the individual championship, finishing six under par.

Men's Tennis

The Bulls started out the weekend falling 4-1 to #6 Illinois on Friday. They only played singles, reserving doubles matches in the event of a tie after the singles matches. Illinois won the first four matches before USF battled back to get a point and were on the verge on getting a second in the fifth spot, but the match was called off before the Bulls could finish it. On Saturday the Bulls bounced back and picked up a 4-2 win over #42 Pepperdine. USF lost the doubles point, but won four of the six singles matches to secure the victory.

Women's Golf

USF competed in the Lady Gator Intercollegiate Golf Tournament in Gainesville, FL this weekend. The Bulls didn't have the best of showings as they finished in last place. The best individual effort came from freshman Ashley Burke, who finished tied for 21st.

Women's Tennis

The women's tennis team had another good weekend, beating Memphis 5-2 on Friday. This marked the 10th straight win for the #51 Bulls. USF swept the doubles matches and won four of six singles matches to seal the victory.

Sailing

The Bulls competed in two different regattas this weekend. The first was the SAISA South Points 4, which they hosted in St. Pete. The Bulls finished first in that regatta over seven other schools, including the University of Florida and the University of Miami (who finished in second to last and last, respectively). The second regatta was the Graham Hall Team Race hosted by Navy in Annapolis. The Bulls didn't do as well in that one, finishing 13th out of 16 schools. Georgetown grabbed the win and Yale came in second.

Softball

The softball team competed in the Michele Smith Spring Break Tournament this weekend. The Bulls had a rough start to the tournament- losing to #12 Baylor 3-0. They bounced back in their second game on Friday to beat UMass 3-0. Sara Nevins had that look in her eye and picked up her 13th win of the season in the most impressive way possible- a no hitter (she narrowly missed the perfect game by giving up only one walk). It was her fifth no hitter of her career and fifth shutout of the season. On Saturday USF headed out to Clearwater to take on the Dutch National Team and won 3-2. Karla Claudio got the start and went five innings- giving up two runs off four hits. On Sunday they were back to collegiate opponents and went 2-0 on the day. The first game was a 6-1 win over Wagner that earned Sara Nevins her 14th win of the year. She came on in the fourth in relief of Sam Greiner and picked up right where she left off on Friday. She finished the rest of the game, going four innings and giving up no hits and striking out 10. The last game of the tournament was an 8-0 win over Marist. Erica Nunn got the start for the Bulls and lasted five innings, giving up no runs and only two hits while striking out seven. Stephanie Medina got a two RBI triple to start of the scoring for the Bulls in the first inning and they never looked back.

Track & Field

The Bulls hosted their first of four outdoor track meets this year on Friday. USF won four events in total, with both the men's and women's teams getting two win each. For the women's team, Lindsay Arnold won the heptathlon with a personal best of 4,553 points. Laticia Sims also recorded a personal best in her event (100m) with a time of 14.05, which was good enough for the win. For the men's, Wyatt Metzger finished first place in pole vaulting and Matthew O'Neal finished first place in the triple jump. Senior Shane Lewis also competed for the Bulls at the NCAA Indoor Championships in Albuquerque, NM on Saturday and finished in 15th place in triple jump.