Bulls Shut Out St. John's 2-0 In BE Tourney

[Brad]

Courtesy USF

USF BASEBALL

Bulls Shut Out St. John's 2-0 In BIG EAST Tournament Play

TAMPA, Fla. (May 23, 2007) – The University of South Florida tallied one run in the first inning, and added a second in the bottom of the eighth to beat conference co-champion St John's University, 2-0, Wednesday night in the second round of the 2007 BIG EAST Baseball Championship held at KeySpan Park in Brooklyn, N.Y.  

With the victory, the Bulls won their second game in a conference tournament for the first time since the 2002 season. USF was winless in the 2006 tournament, won a lone game in both 2003 and 2005 and did not make the post-season tournament in 2004. In 2002, USF was 2-2 in the Conference-USA tournament and 2-2 in the Tallahassee Regional.  

Right handed pitcher Chris Delaney earned his ninth win of the season, his first victory in five tries after starting his senior season 8-0. He struck out three of his 27 Red Storm batters, allowing just two hits and no runs in six and one-third innings.  

Freshman Shawn Sanford came in to relive Delaney in the seventh, striking out four batters and allowing just one hit in his 11th save of the season.  

After holding the Red Storm scoreless for the first inning, USF notched one run in the bottom of the frame to take the 1-0 lead. USF held the one-run lead through seven innings, then added an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth to pick up their 34th win of the season.  

USF scored in the first inning for the 22nd time this season as the Bulls recorded two hits in the bottom half of the first frame. Leadoff batter Walter Diaz put down a bunt to the third base side to reach the basepaths, then scored as sophomore Addison Maruszak doubled to right field, tallying his 44th RBI of the season on the play.  

The Bulls looked to make anther dent on the scoreboard in the bottom of the sixth, but left three runners stranded after two drawn walks and a single from sophomore Mike Consolmagno.  

In the top of the seventh, St. John's threatened to score after sending a double to the gap in right field, then being hit by a pitch, but Sanford came in to relieve Delaney, forcing the Red Storm to pop out to first baseman Brandin Daniel, then striking out the final batter of the inning.  

USF scored their second and final run in the bottom of the eighth, as Consolmagno tagged his second hit of the game then scored when junior second baseman Dexter Butler send a base hit up the middle. Butler drove in his 44th RBI of the season on the play.  

Following Wednesday's win, USF will play on Friday at 1 p.m., against the winner of Thursday's 7 p.m. No. 8 UConn / No. 1 St. John's loser's bracket game.

[USFootball]

AWESOME GAME!! Our guys were excited the entire game, a great win...

[USFCollin]

Greetings from Brooklyn as well.  I have to say I think this is the most fun I've had at any USF sporting event on the road, and I've been to a ton of them.  Both games have been dramatic, and our pitching has just been outstanding. The Bulls fans who made the trip have really been into it, and our team is as fired up as I've seen them all season.  

Keyspan Park is a beauty, right on the water in Brooklyn on Coney Island.  I'd rate it a close second to Brighthouse Field in Clearwater as far as minor league parks I've seen.  The people I've talked to say they often sell out all 7,000 seats for Cyclones games, which is extremely impressive for an A Ball team.  Despite the small dimensions (315 in left, 412 in center, 325 in right), the wind tends to blow very hard and straight in from center directly off the ocean.  This place is paradise for a fly ball pitcher, as you really need to have the wind blowing across the field to have any chance of getting one out.  

Louisville looked very good today in beating Rutgers, so it'll be them and us who will need to win only one out of two on Friday, and we both have the off day tomorrow.  This team looks like they're having the time of their lives out there, and they're really playing for each other.  One run conceded in 18 innings is a credit to tremendous pitching as well as the best run of defense we've played all year.  

It's really been the dream start not just because of the wins, but the pitch counts.  Otero only threw 86 pitches on Tuesday in a complete game, so you'd think he'd be available for the championship game on Saturday.  Delaney threw 113 tonight during 6 1/3 shutout innings, and he's probably done for the week, but he was just nails all night long and made a big pitch every time one was needed.  Sanford threw just 32 in 2 2/3 of relief, and was just lights out.  He made the best offense in the Big East look foolish for eight hitters, the lone hit allowed going about 45 feet in the infield.  Arm usage is such a big part of winning a tournament in college baseball, and you couldn't of scripted this any better for the Bulls so far.  Having everyone available Friday and Saturday is a huge plus.  

Knuckle Up Bulls.... this could be something special.  

[Bulls 8_va]

Sounds great Collin...

So, how was our attendance?

100? 200? 17? lol

GO BULLS!!!

[crambone]

wow...NICE!

[Rabbi Bull]

i wish i could have gone, stupid hebrew class, i should have asked Coach at the last game if i could have gone with them.

[TyBull]

Question:

Following Wednesday's win, USF will play on Friday at 1 p.m., against the winner of Thursday's 7 p.m. No. 8 UConn / No. 1 St. John's loser's bracket game.

Are we the last team in the winners bracket?

Do we wait for all the losers to come up with a winner to face us in the Championship?

[Eric_Soncrant]

Ty:

The way it works is there are basically two sections on the tournament.  We are basically now in the championship game for our section and will play the winner of St. Johns and UConn.  The winner of that game will have to beat us twice.  The winner of the section then plays in the BIG EAST Conference Championship game against the winner of the other section.  Right now Louisville is in the drivers seat.  The reason for doing this is to set up a one game championship that is televised (I believe on ESPNU).  Makes for a better television set up.

Eric

[outrunner]

I still don't like how that works; having the entire tournament as double-elimination, exept the championship game. But I guess they're trying to cut down the length of the tourney since that might add an extra game or two.

Anyhow, how does this win affect getting to the NCAA tournament, or are we still fighting till the end just for a outside chance?

[jg]

I would say we are a bubble team at best. If we make it to the championship game we could possibly get the at large, but I would not count on it. We need to win this thing to take it out of othe rpeople's hands. Just ask the team in 1994, who received a letter of apology after the fact saying we were "over looked". Not still bitter about that or anything.