February 11, 2015
 
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PENSACOLA, Fla. – The University of West Florida baseball team will start a three-game series tomorrow evening at 6:00 p.m. against Tampa, the defending NCAA Division II National Champions and winners of two of the last three national championships. The UWF-Tampa series will continue on Saturday and Sunday with start times of 2:00 p.m. CT and 12:00 p.m. CT, respectively.
 
MATTHEWS' RAPID START: Junior transfer Ladeavon Matthews has been on a tear since the start of the 2016 season, recording at least one extra base hit in each of the season's first four games... With three home runs on the year, Matthews currently leads the Gulf South Conference...The past three games, Matthews has homered in each of them, making him the first UWF player since Greg Pron (April 16-17, 2011) to homer in three consecutive games... At Lawson State CC last year, Matthews played in 56 games and led his team in at bats (180), runs (40), hits (61), doubles (18), triples (3), RBI (28), stolen bases (29), batting average (.339), on base percentage (.449) and slugging percentage (.506)... Matthews currently leads the team with a .400 average and 1.067 slugging percentage... Second on team with five RBI and first on the team with 16 total bases... Matthews already eclipsed his home run total from 2015, as the Georgia native hit two home runs all of last season.
 
BULLPEN SHINES: The West Florida bullpen combined for 16 innings so far this season and only allowed four earned runs, good for a 2.25 ERA... 9.1 of those 16 innings came during Sunday's double header... The combination of Cole Crowder, Anthony Mazzurco, Steve McClellan and Josh McLaney did not allow any earned runs on Sunday, while striking out eight, walking one and allowing 10 hits... The 2016 bullpen currently features only two players that were on the 2015 roster... One of those two players, Jarrod Petree, made the transition to the bullpen after being an All-GSC Second Team starter in 2015... Petree tossed three innings of no-hit, one-run ball in UWF's 6-4 win over Mobile on Tuesday... Petree was credited with the win on Tuesday, making his career collegiate record a perfect 10-0 (6-0 as junior/sophomore at UWF, 4-0 as freshman at UCF).
 
GRANAT LOOKS TO BUILD ON IMPRESSIVE DEBUT: Penciled in to start game two, JT Granat will face another Sunshine State Conference foe in Tampa on Saturday... Granat, a member of the 2015 NJCAA National Championship team at Northwest Florida State, shutdown the Florida Southern lineup in game one on Feb. 7, tossing five innings of shutout ball, striking out six and only surrendering two hits.
 
#DEFENDTHESPOON: Since the start of the 2013 season, UWF owns an impressive 73-13 record at Jim Spooner Field... Last year included an eye-popping 25-5 record at home... UWF will play just 24 of 50 regular season games at home this season.
 
POWER PRESENCE: West Florida was seventh in the GSC in 2015 with just 15 home runs on the season, however 2016 has proved to be a different story in terms of power-hitting ability... Through the team's first four games, UWF has swatted eight home runs as a team, which is already more than 50% of last season's total of 15, which took 48 games to accumulate... Nic Strasser, who had one home run during the 2015 campaign, broke his total from last season homering in both games of last Sunday's double header against Florida Southern... Robert Lopez, a freshman coming out of George Jenkins HS in Lakeland, Florida, hit one over the left field wall in UWF's home opener on Tuesday... Lopez's home run came in just his third game and seventh collegiate at bat... Jean Figueroa, who missed all but five games in 2015 due to an injury, started 2016 strong hitting two home runs and slashing .455/.500/1.000 in the team's opening weekend against Florida Southern... Figueroa's home runs included an inside-the-parker in game one last Sunday, while his second homer of the day was a go-ahead blast in the 10th inning of game two.
 
UWF CONTINUES WIN STREAK VS. MOBILE: UWF opened up its home schedule with the NAIA's Mobile Rams on Tuesday... With the 6-4 victory over the Rams, UWF extends its win streak to eight against their foe from Mobile... Freshman Troy Brown made his first collegiate start, going three innings and surrendering just one run on two hits... Nic Strasser posted a 2-for-4 performance with a pair of stolen bases and runs scored... The Argonauts had four players with a multi-hit performance in addition to Strasser, with Justin Ambrosino, Ladeavon Matthews and Michael Savas all having two-hit nights... With home runs from Matthews and Robert Lopez, the Argos posted their third consecutive game having multiple home runs as a team.
 
DII POWERHOUSES: Tampa is the winningest team in NCAA Division II over the last six seasons (2010-2015), having a 264-67 (.798) record during that time span with two NCAA Division II National Championships... West Florida, the 2011 NCAA Division II National Champions, is the 13th winningest program in DII during that time span with a 226-91 (.713) record.
 
SERIES HISTORY VS.TAMPA: The Spartans, winners of seven NCAA Division II National Championships including two of the last three national championships, is 14-4 all-time against UWF... The last time the Argonauts beat Tampa was on May 19, 2013 during the South Regional by a score of 7-2... Kyle Hamner was the starting catcher for that game.
 
LAST TIME OUT: Right after that 7-2 win, West Florida played Tampa again for the South Region championship and a chance to go to the Division II College World Series... Tampa put on an offensive showing that game, posting 20 runs against the Argonauts pitching staff... Tampa beat West Florida by a score of 20-7... Tampa would go on to win the 2013 NCAA Division II National Championship... No current Argonaut players appeared in that game.
 
SCOUTING TAMPA: The Spartans have gotten off to a 6-0 start to the 2016 season after sweeping both Bentley and Georgia College in the first two weekends of the season... Combined, Bentley and Georgia College for a 43-42 record in 2015... Tampa has outscored their opponents 54-25 so far... Carrying over from last season, Tampa currently rides a 16-game winning streak, with their last loss coming on May 1, 2015 against Rollins.... J.D. Osborne paces the Spartan lineup, having three home runs and nine RBI with a .348/.400/.826 slash line... Laz Rivera and Adrian Chacon are second on the team with 8 RBI... Outfielder Casey Scoggins eads UT with a .500 (11-22) batting average.
  
Friday
UWF: Brandon Nagem – 0-0, 1 GS, 5.1 IP, 6.75 ERA, 5 K, 0 BB, 8 H
UT: Michael Calkins -- 0-0, 2 GS, 8 IP, 2.25 ERA, 10 K, 2 BB, 5 H
Saturday
UWF: JT Granat – 1-0, 1 GS, 5 IP, 0.00 ERA, 6 K, 1 BB, 2 H
UT: David Heintz -- 1-0, 2 GS, 8 IP, 4.50 ERA, 15 K, 3 BB, 8 H
Sunday
UWF: Walker O'Connor – 0-0, 3.2 IP, 7.36 ERA, 2 K, 1 BB, 6 H
UT: Brad Henke -- 1-0, 2 GS, 10 IP, 0.00 ERA, 8 K, 3 BB, 2 H