Brad Lord gets the win, Carmine Lane goes 3-of-5 with two RBI
TAMPA (February 19, 2022) – The USF baseball team posted its first win of the 2022 season (1-1) downing Louisville (1-1), 8-4, at the USF Baseball Stadium Saturday night to record head coach Billy Mohl’s 100th career win.
Bulls starting pitcher Brad Lord recorded six strikeouts and allowed two earned runs in five innings of work before giving away to Devin Hemenway, who gave up one hit in two innings of work. Sophomore Hunter Mink entered in the eighth and allowed no runs while giving up two hits and striking out two to close the door on the Cardinals.
Six Bulls drove in a run, eight scored, and four had two or more hits on the night, including doubles from Drew Brutcher, Daniel Cantu and Nelson Riviera and a triple from Carmine Lane, who drove in two runs while going 3-of-5 on the night. USF logged 12 hits as Louisville posted eight and both teams committed two errors.
The Bulls got six runs in the second inning, utilizing six hits and two Cardinals errors, to establish control early and chase Cardinals starter Jared Poland after two innings.
Cantu doubled to start the inning. After a Matt Ruiz strikeout, Jarrett Eaton drove the ball to center and Cantu scored when the Cardinals mishandled the ball and Eaton advanced to second on the error. Eaton moved to third on a wild pitch and scored when Roberto Pena singled to center.
Rivera kept the hot bats going with a double down the line. Nick Gonzalez popped up, but Louisville again struggled with the setting sun and Pena scored on the Cardinals error. Ben Rozenblum drove in Pena with a sacrifice fly and Brutcher followed with a single. Lane’s single drove in Gonzalez and Cantu returned to the plate. His single to center scored Brutcher. Ruiz then walked to put load the bases, but Louisville finally got out of the inning when Poland got Eaton to pop up.
Louisville rallied in the fifth, scoring four runs on three hits and two USF errors. Cameron Masterman singled to center to start the inning and Logan Beard reached on an error by Lane. Jack Payton doubled to right to score Masterman and Christian Knapczyk reached on a throwing error from Pena, with Payton and Beard scoring on the throw to first that went to the field fence.
Ben Metzinger singled to center to score Knapczyk before Lord got out of the inning by inducing groundball outs from Dalton Rushing and JT Benson.
USF added to its two-run cushion in the bottom half of the fifth when Ruiz drew a leadoff walk, moved to second on an Eaton ground out, and scored on a Pena single to left.
Lane tacked another run on in the eighth when his triple scored Jackson Mayo, who was pitch running for Rozenblum who reached after being hit by a pitch.
Notable
- Carmine Lane went 3-of-5 with two RBI on the night and leads the Bulls hitting .444 on the year.
- Brad Lord won his first start of the season after going 3-5 with a 4.76 ERA last year.
- Hunter Mink, a transfer from Florida, recorded his first save as a Bull, throwing two scoreless innings and giving up two hits with two strikeouts.
Up Next
The Bulls complete opening weekend play in the USF Invitational by taking on Charlotte Sunday at 1:30 p.m. The 49ers downed UConn on Saturday.
For tickets, please visit usfbullstix.com or call 1-800-Go-Bulls.
About USF Baseball
The USF Baseball program played its first season in 1966 and is entering its 57th season in 2022. Head coach Billy Mohl is entering his fifth season at the helm. The Bulls have made 14 NCAA Tournament appearances, including four since 2015, and earned their first-ever Super Regional berth in 2021. USF was ranked in the Top 25 by five different publications in the final 2021 polls, checking in as high as No. 16. The Bulls have won five conference tournament titles (3 Sun Belt, 1 Metro and 1 American) and six regular season championships (3 Sun Belt, 2 Metro and 1 C-USA). USF baseball players have been recognized with All-America honors 12 times, most recently with third baseman David Villar in 2018, and 18 have earned Freshman All-America accolades, most recently Drew Brutcher and Carmine Lane in 2021. Four players were selected in the 2018 MLB Draft, including the program’s fourth first-round selection in pitcher Shane McClanahan, who made his Major League debut with the Tampa Bay Rays in the 2020 World Series and was the Rays’ postseason game one starter in 2021.
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