PENSACOLA, Fla. — West Florida baseball ended their strong season to the University of Tampa with a final score of 5-4 on Friday at Jim Spooner Field in the NCAA DII South Super Regional.
The Argos opened the scoring in the first inning.
Zack Stokes singled through the right side, and
Trent Kelly followed with a single to left. A throwing error allowed Stokes to reach third.
William Lybrook delivered a two-RBI single to center field, scoring both Stokes and Kelly. Tampa responded in the bottom half of the inning, tying the game at 2-2 with a two-RBI single by Walker Vanecek.
The game remained tied until the sixth inning when Tampa took a 3-2 lead. Jhoander Irigoyen doubled and scored on Gunnett Carlson's RBI single. In the eighth inning, West Florida evened the score. Kelly walked and advanced to third on a single by
Gustavo Mendez.
Zack DeJesus, running for Mendez, advanced to third on Lybrook's RBI single. DeJesus scored on a fielder's choice, making it 4-4. Tampa reclaimed the lead in the bottom of the eighth with an RBI single by Jesse Ponce and another by Jack Martinez, bringing the score to 5-4 and taking the regional championship.
Garrett Brewer started the game for West Florida, pitching 5.2 innings while allowing three earned runs on five hits and one walk, with one strikeout. He threw a total of 74 pitches, 49 of which were strikes.
Elijah Roberts relieved Brewer, pitching 1.1 innings, allowing one hit and striking out two batters.
Micky Scheetz closed the outing, pitching one inning and conceding two earned runs on three hits with one strikeout.
The Argos end their season with a record of 43-16 and close out the Division II era with a conference championship.
