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Bulls Softball Crushed By Gators 11-1, Survive GSU In Elimination Game

2013-05-19T02:32:52Z

USF's second day at the NCAA Softball regionals in Gainesville was tense and anti-climactic, but at all the wrong times.

The anticipated winners' bracket matchup between USF and Florida was decided early. The Gators pounded Sara Nevins, who is a boss, for 7 runs in a little over an inning, in an 11-1 laugher. The game ended after four and a half innings due to the 10-run rule.

Florida cleanup hitter Lauren Haeger did most of the damage. After USF lucked into a run in the top of the first, Haeger hit a three-run homer off Nevins in the bottom half of the inning, and a bases-clearing double in the second off relief pitcher Sam Greiner. Heager would later add a seventh RBI. The score was 11-1 after three innings, and USF never threatened to rally, with Kenshyra Jackson having the only USF hit in the game.

The loss meant USF had face Georgia Southern again. GSU beat Hampton in the losers' bracket game yesterday, earning the Eagles another game with the Bulls.

Like the opening game, runs were hard to come by. USF broke through in the second inning when Kourtney Salvarola -- hitting fifth in a rejiggered lineup -- singled, stole second, advanced to third on a fielder's choice, and scored on a wild pitch. Lindsey Richardson, once again the starting pitcher against Georgia Southern, pitched into the fourth inning before being relieved by Nevins.

In the sixth, Alexa Lewis tripled to lead off the inning. After a great diving catch by USF 1B Stephanie Medina, GSU's Shelby Morrill singled in Lewis, tying the game. Soon runners would be at second and third, putting the Bulls at serious risk of elimination. But Nevins got out of the jam, with a strikeout and a pop-up.

GSU threatened again in the 8th, when Nevins issued two talks and hit a batter. Richardson returned to the mound and got a key strikeout of Kaitlyn Johnson, then a groundout to escape the jam. But like Friday's game, USF's winning run would come from a stolen base and an unlikely hero.

Dani Wayt, who entered the game earlier as a defensive replacement, singled to start the inning. She advanced to second on a wild pitch, stole third base, then scored when the catcher's throw went into left field. Richardson struck out the side in the bottom of the 9th to end it, 2-1.

USF now faces the daunting task of beating the Gators in two consecutive games. UF is now 29-3 at home on the season, and has beaten the Bulls 3-1, 9-1, and 11-1 in three meetings.

By the way, Louisville has been eliminated from their own regional. If USF can somehow win the regional, they could again host the super regional. It would be against UAB (2-0) or UCLA (2-1).

Bulls Softball Defeats Georgia Southern 1-0 in Extra Innings at NCAA Regional

2013-05-17T23:02:29Z

Ashli Goff had three hits and scored the winning run in the eighth inning as the USF defeated Georgia Southern in NCAA Regional play in Gainesville.

The winning play was a squeeze play, as Goff took off from third base and Kourtney Salvarola bunted to GSU pitcher Sara Purvis. Goff slid just passed the glove of GSU catcher A.J. Hamilton for the game's only run.

The game started as a pitching duel between Lindsey Richardson and Purvis. The only hit through four innings was a bloop single to left by Ashli Goff.

Georgia Southern hardly made contact all day, as Bulls pitchers racked up 17 strikeouts. Richardson had a no-hitter and 10 strikeouts through 4.2 IP, but then gave up a long triple to catcher Andrea Tarachuk in the 5th. Goff dove for the ball in right, but it glanced off her glove and rolled toward the wall before CF D'Anna Levine could retrieve it. Richardson then gave up a walk before registering her 11th and final strikeout to end the rally. Richardson struck out every GSU batter at least once.

In three innings of relief, Sara Nevins, who is a boss, allowed no hits and struck out six to record the win.

The Bulls made solid contact all day. They lined out three times in the first two innings. Purvis only registered five strikeouts, with Salvarola and Levine getting two apiece. USF tallied 34 fouls among Purvis' 114 pitches.

The only Bull who could break through in regulation was Ashli Goff, who was 3-for-3 for the game, blooping three singles over the Eagles infield. Her sister Courtney had the Bulls only other hit.

The Bulls threatened repeatedly. In the third, Ashli Goff had a one-out single, followed by a sac bunt by Courtney Goff. Salvarola then struck out to end the threat.

In the fifth, Stephanie Juergens, pinch-running after Lee Ann Spivey walked, made it to second on another sac bunt before being caught stealing at third base to end the inning.

In the seventh, after a Kenshyra Jackson walk, Spivey bunted, but Purvis and Tarachuk collided trying to make a play. Purvis then gathered the ball but overthrew first base. Spivey was safe and Jackson advanced third base. Spivey then made it to second before Monica Santos struck out and Morgan Litchfield had another USF line out, quelling the rally

Finally, in the eighth, Ashli Goff blooped to left for her third hit. Courtney Goff followed with a grounder off the glove off GSU 2B Lexi Allen for an infield single, advancing Ashli Goff to third.

With a base open, GSU decided to pitch to Salvarola, who surprised everyone when she dropped down a bunt as Goff scored for the winning run.

With the win, the Bulls advance to the winners' bracket and will play tomorrow at 1 p.m. versus the winner of this evening's match-up between Florida and Hampton.

This Week In Baseball: USF Finishes Regular Season Against Rutgers, Seeking To Improve NCAA Resume

2013-05-17T16:02:55Z

With the Big East tournament approaching and chances to improve their at-large resume dwindling, USF baseball needs as many wins as they can get. After a costly sweep at the hands of Seton Hall last week, the Bulls are halfway to rebounding from last weekend's results.

On Tuesday, USF atoned for an earlier shellacking against Florida Gulf Coast with a 6-4 win over the Eagles in Fort Myers. James Ramsay's sacrifice fly broke a 3-3 tie in the seventh inning, while Chris Norton and Kyle Copack each drove in insurance runs. Mike Clarkson pitched five good innings, but he lost his chance at the win when FGCU tied the game in the sixth. Adrian Puig ended up taking the W, and Jordan Strittmatter came on to get the save after Lawrence Pardo struggled with his command in the ninth.

The regular season is concluding this weekend with a pivotal series at the USF Baseball Stadium against Rutgers. With Jimmy Herget taking the ball in Thursday night's opener, the Bulls didn't need very many runs, but they jumped all over the Scarlet Knights in the first two innings and took a quick nine-run lead on the way to an 11-4 win. Ramsay had a career-high four hits, every Bull had at least one hit, and seven different players scored a run. With a huge lead backing him up and no reason to wear him out before the conference tournament, Herget was taken out of the game after pitching five innings. He allowed two runs and six hits, and struck out three.

The win on Thursday night clinched a top-four finish for the Bulls, meaning they will be the home team at least once when the Big East tournament begins next week in Clearwater. But right now, the seed doesn't matter very much. It's all about making the win column as big as possible, because with an RPI of 56 before Thursday night's game, they may still be on the outside looking in if they don't win the conference's automatic bid.

USF, FSU Agree To 2015-16 Home-And-Home Series

2013-05-13T22:34:17Z

USF football has officially announced a home-and-home series with Florida State, for the 2015 and 2016 seasons. The Bulls will travel to Tallahassee on September 26, 2015, and host the Seminoles on Sept. 24, 2016.

Needless to say, this is fantastic news.

As memorable as the 2009 and 2012 games were, neither team was at its best. The 2009 FSU team ended up with six losses, its most since 1976. Last year's USF team posted its worst record ever at 3-9. Despite this, both games were exciting, well attended, and had a great atmosphere -- things USF football desperately needs going forward.

In our new post-BCS reality, where one major bowl slot is allotted to all the non-BCS leagues, it is great to have non-conference games against Wisconsin, Florida State, Michigan State, and other "big five" conference schools. Lord knows what cockamamie system they're going to use to pick the winning team from the non-automatic leagues, but it's safe to say that marquee victories will help. Props to USF Athletics for recognizing that, and upgrading the schedule accordingly. Double props for not over-scheduling the team into a foolhardy death march of road trips. All these series are one-for-one.

Here's how USF's future schedules play out:

2014	2015	2016	2017	2018
WESTERN CAROLINA MARYLAND NC STATE at Wisconsin	FLORIDA A&M at Maryland at Florida State INDIANA NEVADA	TOWSON at Indiana FLORIDA STATE	STONY BROOK WISCONSIN	ELON MICHIGAN STATE

The first thing that jumps out is that we have five non-conference games booked for 2015. Joey Johnston tweets that the Nevada game will be moved, though it's not clear from Nevada's future schedules what year it might be moved to. I wouldn't be shocked if that game just goes away entirely. Like a bad road trip hookup, that series was expensive, thrown together at the last minute, and embarrassing to both parties. The other 2015 games would all be problematic to reschedule, for various reasons.

The sequencing of the games is nice. Dates are always subject to change this far into the future, but you can see what they're going for: an annual FCS home opener; strategically placed off weeks (before Miami this year, and before the trip to Wisconsin); and never too many big-name opponents or road trips in a row.

Another good thing is that USF is back-loaded on home games. The Bulls are actually looking for road games at this point. Everybody's looking for home games, especially at the last minute; this gives USF some bargaining power. USF can unobtrusively add road games for 2016-18, with the home ends of those series coming further in the future.

Another thing we couldn't help but notice: the long period of time in which USF added no meaningful future opponents lines up almost exactly with Skip Holtz's tenure as head coach. As Jamie noted previously, the last major scheduling announcement was January 2009, when USF added the first Florida State series. Holtz took over in 2010. We didn't see a single major-conference opponent announced during Holtz's three-year tenure. But within six months of his firing, Maryland, Wisconsin, and a second FSU series were added. I don't know how much say the football coach has in choosing opponents, but it's awfully coincidental that USF's non-conference schedule got a lot more ambitious when its head coach did.

But that's looking back, and we should be looking forward at this point. Over the next six years, we've got Miami, North Carolina State, Maryland, Florida State, Wisconsin, and Michigan State coming to Raymond James Stadium. We'll also get one last visit from Louisville; continuing series with Cincinnati and Connecticut; Navy, which is always a good draw; and, let's face it, the Central Florida game will bring a large crowd.

Between the bad 2011-2012 seasons and the heat death of the Big East, USF football has been all doom and gloom for awhile. But for the first time in a long time, we have something tangible to be excited about.

USF Softball Heads Back to Gainesville Regional For NCAA Tourney Action

2013-05-13T16:37:38Z

For the second year in a row, USF Softball is headed to the Gainesville Regional in the NCAA Tournament. Last year, USF overcame the 5th-seeded Gators, UCF and FCGU in the all-Florida regional. This year, the Gators are even better, ranked #2/3 in the country.

Joining the Bulls and Gators are the Georgia Southern Eagles and Hampton Lady Pirates. Let's take a look at the other entrants in the Gainesville Regional.

USF first matches up with Georgia Southern on Friday. After finishing the regular season just a game over .500 at 28-27, and third in the Southern Conference, the Eagles found there way into the NCAA tournament by winning the Southern Conference tournament.

The Eagles pitched their way into the NCAAs, allowing 3 runs or less in its 5 conference tournament games, including two shut-outs. Georgia Southern avoided conference #1 seed Appalachian State, who lost back-to-back games early in the tournament. The Eagles only loss was a walk-off single to College of Charleston, whom the Eagles defeated in their next game. They won the championship game in a 1-0, 11-inning nail-biter over UNC-Greensboro, that featured a walk-off homer in the 11th by shortstop Kourtny Thomas.

Georgia Southern is led by sophomore pitcher Sarah Purvis, who sports a 1.86 ERA, and gave up five runs over a herculean 24.2 innings during the four-day SoCon tournament. She pitched all 11 innings in the title game shut-out.

DH Shelby Morrill paced the Eagles with a .344 average and 6 home runs.

Also on Friday, the Florida Gators will face the Hampton Lady Pirates

Florida finished the regular season 49-7, good enough for a 2nd seed in the NCAAs. The Gators are one of 11 SEC teams in the NCAA tournament. The Gators won the SEC tournament over Missouri in front of a record crowd in Lexington, Ky. They finished the tournament with a 3-0 record and won all three games by 4 runs or more. However, they also gave up at least 4 runs in each game.

Defeating the Gators in Gainesville will be a monumental task for the three visitors, as Florida mounted an imposing 27-3 home record. Florida was unbeaten at home versus non-conference competition. The Gators feature four hitters with averages over .300, led by Kelsey Stewart's .398 average.

Two-way player Lauren Heager hit .323 with 17 homers, while also posting a 2.31 ERA and 15 wins. SEC Tournament MVP Kristi Merritt hit .305 for the season and led the team with an on-base percentage of .480.

Rounding out the group is Hampton. To get their place in the NCAAs, the Pirates won the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference tournament, defeating rival Norfolk St after losing to the Spartans in the previous game. It was their first MEAC tournament victory in 17 years. They led the conference with a breezy 16-2 record in conference play, and finished 34-24 overall.

Freshman Taylor McCoy lead the Pirates with a .404 batting average and a .471 OBP. The MEAC Tournament MVP, McCoy also hit 5 home runs. Hampton had four players who hit over .300 on the season. And they needed it, because only sophomore pitcher Jailynn Jackson (2.49 ERA) had an ERA under 5.42

*All information gathered from SoCon, SEC and MEAC websites.

Let's Dance! Softball Wins Big East Tournament

2013-05-12T22:03:43Z

It took 10 innings, and the dreaded illegal pitch reared its ugly head again, but USF finished off Notre Dame 1-0 to win the single-elimination Big East Tournament, and the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Sara Nevins, who is a boss, and Notre Dame's Big East Player of the Year Laura Winter traded zeros for nine innings. USF broke through in the tenth, on a throwing error, and singles by Monica Santos and Ashli Goff.

In the bottom of the 10th (Notre Dame batted as the home team), Goff added a nifty 9-3 putout from right field to keep the tying run off base.

The game looked to be over when Nevins got pinch-hitter Casey Africano to fly out to left, but third-base umpire John Stoodley had his hand up -- illegal pitch. Nevins would go on to walk Africano; it was the only walk of the entire game, for either team.

With the tying run on first, and Chloe Saganowich and Kelsey Thornton (both 2 for 3 in the game) due up, Ken Eriksen brought in Lindsey Richardson to close it out. Richardson struck out Saganowich to end it.

The NCAA Tournament field will be announced later tonight. USF was #43 in the RPI going into this week, though that will likely improve after wins over highly-rated Louisville and Notre Dame. Florida (#2 in the RPI) will definitely host a regional, and Florida State (#21) is likely to do so as well. With relatively few Florida teams in this year's field (only FGCU and North Florida look to have a shot), look for USF to be the #2 or #3 seed in one of those regionals.

Gousfbulls.com has a great highlights video here. The NCAA softball selection show will be on ESPNU at 10 PM Sunday night, or you can follow it at ncaa.org here.

Why Tampa Is Awesome: Big Cat Rescue

2013-05-10T21:03:35Z

I'm hardly a cat lover. My roommate still accuses me of killing our previous cat due to the death stares I would give it every time it would pee on the furniture or swipe at the Venetian blinds over and over. I'm Team Dog, but even I love and appreciate the great work done by a true hidden gem of Tampa.

Big Cat Rescue is a wonderful facility that is a second chance for some of the most abused "pets" you'll ever see. The largest accredited sanctuary devoted to big cats in the world, BCR gives over 100 animals a home... and could take hundreds more if they had the budget for it. Many of their tenants come from private owners that just aren't able to care for the animals properly in the first place, or from performing acts that discarded them. Yup, that happy little touring circus is often pretty evil, and that's before you factor in how much clowns suck. Pony up the extra cash and stick to Cirque du Soleil.

Check out what it takes just to move some abandoned tigers from Texas here:

Texas Tiger Rescue (via Big Cat Rescue)

So how do they make money? Well, they don't. Most of the expenses have been covered for almost two decades by Carole Baskin and her family, and the money they take in isn't enough to make it a long-term solution without philanthropy. But you can take a walking tour of their huge facility for $29, which is a must do for anyone that loves animals and wants to see what they're like outside of the confines of a regular "zoo." Bring comfortable shoes, and be prepared to see lions, leopards, tigers, bobcats, caracals, cougars, ocelots, lynx, and whatever else needs a good home.

Many people in Tampa don't even know Big Cat exists, but the work they do is important not only for the wildlife they save, but for continuing the expansion of knowledge about big felines. Take a half-day and do the tour, which will amaze you at how close you can get to these animals. Many have been traumatized by their past experiences and need extra special care, which the excellent staff and volunteers provide every day.

We love Big Cat Rescue, and are proud it calls Tampa home.

Oklahoma State QB Wes Lunt Transferring - Would USF Want Him?

2013-05-10T13:00:05Z

There's another transfer quarterback on the market -- Oklahoma State's Wes Lunt, who started five games as a freshman last season, but fell to third on the Cowboys' depth chart this spring and decided he wanted to leave Stillwater.

Since there's already a Bat-Signal over USF with a symbol of a quarterback on it, I imagine the Bulls will give Lunt a look. But two things might work against them here. The most obvious one is that Lunt is not a graduate transfer, and would have to sit out a year before playing for a new team. USF needs quarterback help right now, so Lunt wouldn't fill their need.

The other is that Lunt is coming out of an Air Raid system, and there's no shortage of teams running that system (or something close to it) that might be a more appealing fit for him. And with Lunt having to sit out a year anyway, it brings a whole other group of schools into the mix that wouldn't have been interested in someone like Steven Bench or Brandon Mitchell, who can both play this season.

Lunt is likely the most talented and proven (relatively speaking) of the transfer quarterbacks out there, but right now he appears to be the least likely to end up at USF.