Bulls Win Again, Now 22-8

[JoeB]

Another strong starting pitching performance by Chris Delaney and solid bullpen work by Shawn Sanford propelled the Bulls to a win today in Connecticut.  Delaney went 7 strong yielding only 5 hits, while Sanford went the last two innings for his 7th save of the season.  The double play ball helped USF today, as the defense helped out with three of the those.

Offensively, Walter Diaz led the way with three hits and a run scored.  Braulio Pardo went 2-4 with a RBI and Addison Maruszak added a hit and an RBI as well.  

Bulls are now an impressive 22-8 overall, 6-2 in conference.  USF will finish the series with UConn tomorrow at noon in Storrs.

[JoeB]

Delaney might get some votes for Big East pitcher of the week with this performance.  Also, Walter Diaz has put up some numbers this week and might be the second Bull (Butler) in the last two weeks to earn Player of the Week for the Big East.  Hopefully we can take care of business tomorrow and then focus our attentions on that school to the east.

[JoeB]

If I'm not mistaken, Chris Delaney is now 6-0.  Way to go Chris!!

Way to go team!!

[bulls96go]

congrats!

go bulls!

question how "real/solid" is that 22 wins?

should we be getting excited or is this "soft" competition?

this is a great job...but is there a component of smoke and mirrors or are we starting to see this program finally live up to its potential?

not a great baseball fan, but a bulls fan.

[Rabbi Bull]

a number of teams we have beaten and swept series with have gone to the NCAA tourny last year.  plus getting two out of 3 from last years Big East champ at their place is impressive.

[BullBlood]

well, the strength of opponents from last year hasn't dropped all that much.  Last year we finished with 23 wins.  We're barely half-way through the season with 22 wins.  Huge improvement over last year, but I don't know how it stacks up against the top 30 teams.  I'd say we must be nipping the heels of the rankings.

[JoeB]

It is pretty impressive being 22-8.  Through 30 games last year, we were 14-16, but our wins were against powerhouses such as Penn, Northwestern, Massachusetts, Army, Vermont, and UConn.  

This year we've already beaten Manhattan (3), Jacksonville (3), Notre Dame (2), and Steson (1) that were all in the NCAA tourney last year.  So our record versus tournament teams from a year ago is 9-2.  The rest of our schedule is mainly Big East opponents so we can't make up ground there as the RPI isn't high for any remaining teams save Louisville.  We do play Georgia Tech late in the year in what could be the biggest home stand in recent memory.

[USFan]

Very impressive!

[South_Florida_Flip]

Amazing job by Lelo so far. He's really given this team the shot in the arm that they needed.