UD Baseball Victorious on Final Day in Florida
Mar 21, 2014 | J.Crane
FORT MYERS, FLORIDA: The University of Dubuque Baseball team closed out their 2014 spring trip in exciting fashion against UMass-Boston. Down 4-2 entering the bottom of the eighth, the Spartans scored three runs to win 5-4. The winning run scored on a two-out RBI single by Vince Parisi (Tinley Park, Ill./Andrew). Justin Naval (Oak Lawn, Ill./Richards) pitched two scoreless innings of relief to earn his second win of the season. UD improved its record to 4-7 overall and 3-4 on the spring trip.
| Score by Innings | R | H | E | ||||||||||
| UMass-Boston (5-4) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | - | 4 | 7 | 0 |
| Spartans (4-7) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 | X | - | 5 | 8 | 5 |
| WIN: J.Naval (2-0) LOSS: H.Zeerip (1-1) | |||||||||||||
| BOX SCORE | |||||||||||||
The Spartans fell behind early on an unearned run in the second and two more runs in the top of the sixth on a home run. UD answered back with two runs on three hits in the bottom of the sixth. Parisi led off the inning with a double to left center and advanced to third on a groundout. Daniel Casanova (Lake Tapps, Wash./Auburn Riverside) walked and stole second base to set up a second and third situation. After a UD strikeout, Parisi stole home with two outs. Austin McWhite (Orlando, Fla./Wekiva) singled to score Casanova and pull UD within one run at 3-2. UM-B scored an unearned run in the seventh to take a 4-2 lead.
For the third time on the trip, the Spartans rallied late to win. Earlier in the week, UD scored two in the seventh and three in the eighth to win 6-2 against Southern Vermont and two in the seventh on a RBI triple by Parisi against UW-Platteville to win 5-3. The three-run seventh inning began with a Michael Salazar (Scottsdale, Ariz./Desert Mountain) walk, McWhite single and Dalton Garst (Winnebago, Ill./Winnebago) single to load the bases and force a UMass pitching change. Senior Steve Ryan (Loveland, Colo./Mountain View) singled through the left side of the infield to tie the game at 4-4. After a UD strikeout, Parisi stepped into the box and lined a two-out single into left field for the eventual winning run.
Naval earned the win with two scoreless innings of relief. He allowed one hit while striking out three. Starting pitcher Josh Eastman (Edgerton, Wis./Edgerton) took the no-decision working seven innings with eight strikeouts.
McWhite finished the game 2-4 with a run and RBI. Ryan hit safely in his fifth straight game.
UP NEXT: The Spartans open Iowa Conference action on Friday, March 28th against Central College in Dubuque. Game 1 of the doubleheader is scheduled to start at 1:00 pm.
LIVE Stats available at: UD Baseball STATS
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