D.J. Roberts Leaves Early In USF Baseball’s 11-9 Loss To Jacksonville

D.J. Roberts left Tuesday night’s USF baseball game after just 1 2/3 innings, and while we don’t know if it was due to injury or ineffectiveness, it left the Bulls scrambling to eat up innings. Ultimately it may have led to their 11-9 loss to the Jacksonville Dolphins.

Roberts, coming off a sparkling start last Tuesday at Florida, had already given up four hits and three runs (two earned) when he left the game. Mark Savarese pitched an inning and a third, but when Michael Farley entered the game, the Dolphins hit him up for six more runs in his 1.1 innings. The Bulls (39-13) had rallied from a 6-2 hole with four runs in the top of the fifth. However, Jacksonville (31-21) immediately scored five in the bottom of the fifth. USF chipped away with a run in the sixth and two in the seventh, but couldn’t close the deficit again.

Sam Armstrong and Jacob Southern both hit home runs for the Dolphins. Luke Borders doubled twice and drove in a pair of runs for the Bulls.

USF now finishes their conference schedule at C. this weekend. There are lots of different scenarios for who can get the top seed in next week’s American Athletic Conference tournament in Clearwater — we’ll direct you to this comment by one of our readers for all the details.