UT Baseball: National Champions for the 8th Time

The University of Tampa baseball team rallied in the late innings to secure their eighth NCAA DII National Championship. The Spartans have won five national titles under head coach Joe Urso '92 since 2006.

2019 DII Baseball National Champions The Spartans won 11 straight games, a season-high, as UT went undefeated in the NCAA DII Championship Series.

The Spartans won 11 straight games, a season-high, as UT went undefeated in the NCAA DII Championship Series.

“This is the reason we all decided to come to Tampa,” Yorvis Torrealba told the Tampa Bay Timesin an article published the day of the win. “It’s to be part of history, to win a national championship and have our names in the record book.”

The win was icing on the cake for four Spartans selected in the 2019 Major League Baseball Amateur Draft earlier last week. They include Sammy Peralta in the 18th round by the Chicago White Sox, Torrealba in the 20th round by the Colorado Rockies, Keven Pimentel in the 28th round by the Colorado Rockies and Tyler Beck in 30th round by the Minnesota Twins.

INSIDE THE CHAMPIONSHIP MATCHUP

Final: (#2) Tampa 3 (W: Keven Pimentel, 13-2) || (S: Jacinto, 3), (#1) Colorado Mesa 1 (L: Trevin Reynolds, 7-2)

Records: (#2) No. 3 University of Tampa Spartans (45-14), (#1) No. 1 Colorado Mesa University Mavericks (53-12)

Location: USA Baseball National Training Complex || Cary, N.C.

All-time Series: The two previous meetings in this series took place in 2014; The Spartans defeated the Mavericks, 3-1, to force a winner-take-all matchup for a berth in the 2014 National Championship. In the must-win contest, CMU secured their place in the national championship with a 3-2 win over UT. Colorado Mesa dropped the 2014 National Championship to the University of Southern Indiana.

HOW IT HAPPENED

TOP 6TH: Spencer Bramwell, the Mavericks catcher, led off the inning and reached base via an error. After a sacrifice bunt moved Bramwell into scoring position, Chase Hamilton poked a two-out base-hit into right field to give CMU the first lead of the ballgame. || CMU led 1-0

BOT 6TH: With two outs, the Spartans sparked their offensive attack as Danny Sirven singled to right on an 0-2 count. In an eight-pitch at-bat, Cole Perry roped his seventh double of the year to score Sirven from first base. Sirven, the senior catcher for UT, ran through the stop-sign from head coach Joe Urso and evened the score for Tampa. || Tied 1-1

BOT 7TH: Danny Blair and Nick DeTringo registered back-to-back singles, for the second time on the afternoon. After Stephen Smith advanced his teammates on a groundout, Torrealba ripped a base-knock through the left-side and brought home both runners in scoring position. || UT led 3-1

2019 DII Baseball National Champions
The Spartans have won five national titles under head coach Joe Urso since 2006.

INSIDE THE STATS

Pimentel went seven innings for the tenth time this season; the senior struck out five batters, walked one and allowed one un-earned run on five hits.

Arredondo came into relief and logged the final six outs; the junior right-hander recorded his third save of the year.

Sirven went 2-for-4; the senior catcher recorded multiple hits in nine of the last 10 games.

The 7/8 hitters, Blair and DeTringo, combined to go 4-for-6 and both scored on the game-winning base-hit.

OUTSIDE THE BOX

Arredondo was named MVP of the NCAA DII Championship Series. The junior reliever appeared in all four games and pitched 8.1 innings, struck out eight, allowed only two walks and one hit.

Dating back to 2015, Tampa has won eight straight games in Cary, N.C.

Pimental tossed at least seven innings in his last seven starts.

In four starts in the 2019 NCAA postseason, Pimentel went 3-0 (0.60 ERA) allowing two earned runs in 30 innings pitched. The senior struck-out 22, walked three and allowed only two extra-base hits.

Sirven, a University of Tennessee transfer, went 16-for-39 (.410) in nine postseason games. The catcher logged two triples, a double, nine RBI and nine runs scored.

In nine postseason games, DeTringo batted .405 (15-for-37) while driving in nine runs and the senior shortstop scored 10 times.

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