The Weekend Wrap-Up: 4/4-4/6 Edition

Baseball

The baseball team took on UCF this weekend, but things didn't go as planned. The Bulls dropped the series, taking just one game of three. Things started off with a good old fashioned pitchers duel on Friday. Jimmy Herget tossed a gem for the Bulls, but he didn't get any offense to back him up and USF lost 2-0. Of the six hits they managed to get, all six of them were singles and nobody got a multi-hit game. In the fifth USF managed to get the bases loaded with only one out, but balked at the chance by getting a foul out and ground out to end the inning.

The second game of the series was the only one the Bulls managed to win, 4-2. Casey Mulholland picked up where Herget left off and tossed a complete game for the win. He finished with just two runs charged against him while getting a nice total of six strikeouts. A big third inning proved to be the difference for the Bulls. Levi Borders started things off with a one-out double. Luke Borders then drove his brother in with a nice RBI single to centerfield. Zac Gilcrease then stole the show with a triple to drive in the other Borders, before scoring himself on a wild pitch.

"Those guys (Herget and Mulholland) have been great leaders these last couple days and both of them pitched great," said USF Head Coach Lelo Prado. "I'm just proud of the way we competed."

The final game of the series ended in a 6-3 victory for UCF. Redshirt freshman Tommy Peterson got his first career start, but couldn't get the win. He last only 4.2 innings and gave up two runs off four hits, while also striking out four. Both runs charged against Peterson came in the form of a two-run home run from Tommy Williams in the second inning. Williams wasn't quite finished for the night and hit another two-run bomb in the sixth inning. The Bulls will travel up to Philadelphia next to take on Temple in a three game series.

Men's Tennis

The #25 USF men's tennis team easily beat #39 Tulsa on Friday. The doubles point was very closely contested, but USF ultimately won the point thanks to a tiebreaker in the last matchup. The Bulls then went on to win three of the first four singles matches to win the match. The final score was 6-1. The Bulls will now travel to Middle Tennessee State and Memphis this upcoming weekend for their last matches of the season before moving on to The American tournament.

Softball

The softball team had an unusually dreadful weekend and got swept in a three-game series against Louisville. Sara Nevins picked up her fifth loss of the season on Friday. She lasted 5.2 innings givings up two runs off three hits and striking out nine. The Bulls were leading 1-0 going into the sixth, but that's when it all fell apart. Nevins gave up the first two runs in the sixth before exiting. The Cardinals then added three important insurance runs in the seventh off of Erica Nunn.

The second game of the series ended in a 3-0 loss for the Bulls. USF outhit Louisville in the game, but were just unable to capitalize on their chances. Nunn got charged with the loss after giving up all three runs through her five innings of work.

Nevins picked up her second loss (now 17-6) of the weekend on Sunday, a 3-1 loss for USF. The Bulls again took a 1-0 lead deep into the game, but couldn't hold on. Nevins ended up getting charged with all three of Louisville's runs in the seventh inning. She finished with seven strikeouts through 6.1 innings and is now just seven strikeouts short of being the first Bull to ever reach 1,000 in their career. USF finished the game with just four hits and struggled offensively.

"We are just not playing very well right now," said USF Head Coach Ken Eriksen. "We didn't do a very good job this week preparing them for Louisville. I think the preparation needs to be a little bit better from the coaching staff going into the UCF series. It's more about us than anything else right now."

Track & Field

It was a record breaking weekend for the men's 4x100 relay team at the USF Collegiate. Derrick Hopkins (perhaps now better known for his exploits on the track than the football field as a receiver for the Bulls), Chareif Lewis, Dae Young Yoon, and Alfred Higgs set the school-record with a time of 40.34 seconds, beating the old record by .41 seconds.

The men's team walked away with first overall finishes in two other events as well. Matthew O'Neal predictably finished in first in the triple jump (this guy is a monster and holds the school record in triple jump as a sophomore and won the Big East championship in it for both outdoor and indoor last year as a freshman). Christopher Grinley was the other winner, finishing first in the 110m hurdles.

On the women's side of things, Courtney Anderson won the high jump for the Bulls. The only other event winner for the women's team was Natasha Stewart in the long jump.

Women's Golf

The women's golf team competed in the Rebel Intercollegiate Invite hosted by Ole Miss this weekend. The Bulls finished 15 out of 18 teams. Freshman Ashley Burke had a strong showing, finishing ninth individually with a three-round total score of 218 (two over par). Georgia Regents University- Augusta (ranked 32 nationally) finished in first as a team.

Women's Tennis

The women's tennis team was busy this weekend, taking on both VCU and Georgia Southern. It turned out to be a fantastic weekend for the team in the end. They extended their winning streak to 12 games, the longest in school history, and finished the year a perfect 10-0 at home. USF dropped the doubles point in both of the matches, but then rallied back to win singles both times. The match against VCU ended 5-2 in USF's favor and the final score against Georgia Southern was 4-1 for USF. The Bulls will now host the American Athletic Conference championship. The first match will be next Thursday, April 17th at the USF varsity courts.