USF ATHLETICS GoUSFBulls.com
Jake Sullivan, Nick Gonzalez and Riley Hogan have their teams in postseason contention with a little more than a week to go
TAMPA, July 22, 2019 – The race for the playoffs are heating up with multiple USF baseball players in summer collegiate baseball league postseason contention.
Summer Ball Bulls
Alex Bello – Danbury Westerners – New England Collegiate Baseball League
Bello had a double and two RBI on Saturday. He has 14 RBI this summer, as the Westerners have 14 games remaining. They sit at 15-18 this season, but are just six games back of first place in the Southern Division.
Jake Sullivan – Savannah Bananas – Coastal Plain League
Sullivan went 1-for-4 with a run on Saturday. He has 13 runs and 19 RBI this summer in 31 games. The Bananas have seven more games with the Coastal Plain League playoffs set to begin on Aug. 4. The Bananas are 26-14 sitting atop the South Division of the CPL. They are just two games back in the win column and one in the loss column of the Morehead City Marlins (28-13) for the top overall seed.
Nick Gonzalez – Peninsula Pilots – Coastal Plain League
Gonzalez had a big weekend, totaling five hits and five RBI. He went 1-for-3 on Friday with two RBI and followed with a 4-for-4 effort on Saturday, driving in three runs. The four hits and three RBI were both season highs, as he has 16 RBI and 18 runs this summer. The Pilots are 21-19 and two games behind the Wilson Tobs for first in the North Division of the Coastal Plain League.
Riley Hogan – Peninsula Pilots – Coastal Plain League
Hogan extended hitting streak to eight games on July 18, going 2-for-4 with two runs and a RBI. Though it came to a halt on Friday, he still scored a run in a 5-2 win for the Pilots. He then went 1-for-3 on Saturday. He has hit safely in 14 of the last 16 games. He’s hitting .414 since recording his first hit of the summer on June 14 with eight doubles, 24 runs and 27 RBI. He was 0-for-16 in his first nine games of the season and is now batting .348 on the year.
Austin Bodrato – Pompano Beach Clippers – South Florida Collegiate Baseball League
The Clippers wrapped up their season on July 18. Bodrato finished the summer batting .375 over his last nine games. He hit .313 during the year with two doubles, a triple, two homers, 16 RBI and 15 runs.
About USF Baseball
The University of South Florida baseball team is one of the fastest rising programs in the country. The Bulls reached the NCAA Regionals in 2015 for the first time in 13 years and followed that success with a 42-19 record and second NCAA regional trip in three years in 2017. The Bulls continued the success under first-year head coach Billy Mohl in 2018, reaching 36 wins and advancing to the semifinals of the conference tournament for the first time since 2012, while being ranked in multiple polls for the final two months. USF earned its third NCAA Regional berth in the last four seasons and had six all-conference selections in 2018. The team had four players drafted in the 2018 MLB Draft, including the program’s fourth first rounder, Shane McClanahan. Junior third baseman David Villar was taken in the 11th round after tallying 24 doubles and hitting better than .370, being named first team all-conference and an All-American. The USF Baseball program has won five conference titles and the Bulls have made 13 NCAA appearances.
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Patrick Puzzo
Assistant Director of Communications
University of South Florida Athletics
GoUSFBulls.com
Twitter: @USFBaseball | @USFVolleyball | @USFSailingTeam
