PENSACOLA, Fla.—The Barry Buccaneers knocked out the Tampa Spartans in the NCAA Division II South Region Baseball Tournament at Jim Spooner Field on the campus of the University of West Florida on Saturday night 5-2 behind a complete game win from Jordan Wellander (5-2).
Wellander scattered 10 hits and struck out nine without walking a batter to pick up his first win as a starter since beating Palm Beach Atlantic on Mar. 22. Wellander, who had a 0.70 fly ball to ground ball ratio on the season, had 11 fly outs to only six ground outs in the contest, taking advantage of the park which had seen just six homers in 10 games.
The Spartans (36-17) got on the board first in the bottom of the fifth inning. Eric Grabe lined a double into the right centerfield gap to lead off the inning. Wellander came within a strike of stranding him at third, but Adam Pendelton delivered an 0-2 single up the middle to plate the first run of the game.
The Bucs (37-16) answered back in the top of the sixth. With two outs, Matt Petty dropped a bunt down for a base hit and swiped second, one of three stolen bases on the afternoon for the Bucs. Lyndon Coleman followed with an RBI single to left to knot the game at 1-1. The next batter, James Young turned on the first pitch he saw from Tampa starter Frank DeJiulio (5-4) and deposited it over the wall in leftfield for a two-run homer.
In the seventh, Manny Pedrozo led off the frame with a solo shot, giving the Bucs three of the six homers hit in the tournament’s first 10 games. Barry tacked on another insurance run in the eighth when Young, who led off with a single, scored on a two-out single by Adrian English.
The Spartans crept to within 5-2 in the ninth inning when Mike Bourdon singled to drive in Grabe from third, but, with the tying run at plate, Wellander got a flyout from Zach Gawrych and struck out Heath Pritchard on a full count to end the game.
Young, English and Evan Ashley each had two hits for the Bucs. Young also scored twice and drove in two. Grabe led the Spartans with two hits. Dean Green was 0-for-2, but was walked intentionally by Tampa three times to set a school record.
The Bucs, who swept the Spartans in the conference series Apr. 15-16, sweep the season series from Tampa for the first time in school history.
The Bucs now advance to Sunday. They will face the Nova Southeastern Sharks (for the seventh time on the season) at 1:00 pm. The Sharks advanced with a 5-4 win in 11 innings against Harding earlier in the day. The winner of the Barry/Nova game will face the loser of the winner’s bracket final, either seventh seed North Alabama or host West Florida for the right to play in the championship game on Monday.
(05/21/11 at Pensacola, Fla.)
Barry 5, Tampa 2
----------------------------------------------------------------------Barry.................. 000 003 110 - 5 9 1 (37-16)
Tampa.............. 000 010 001 - 2 10 0 (36-17)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Pitchers: Barry - Jordan Wellander and Chris Leon. Tampa - Frank DeJiulio; Daniel Foltz(7);
Cody Davis(7) and Adam Pendleton; Mike Bourdon.
Win-Jordan Wellander(5-2) Loss-Frank DeJiulio(5-4) T-2:46 A-350
HR BU - James Young (8); Manny Pedrozo (5).
Weather: Perfect
DeJiulio faced 1 batter in the 7th.