USF Baseball: Bulls drop weekend finale to Army

Jack Cebert struck out a career-best eight batters in Sunday’s 6-1 loss.

TAMPA (March 19, 2023) – The University of South Florida Bulls (8-13) fell to the Army Black Knights (7-10) in the finale of a three-game weekend series at USF Baseball Stadium, 6-1. The setback snapped South Florida’s three-game winning streak.

Jack Cebert (Tampa) turned in his second straight quality start and struck out a career-high eight batters. Cebert was charged with the loss despite allowing zero earned runs and issuing just one walk over 6.0 IP.

“Our starting rotation has been getting better every weekend, and helped carry us to a series win,” said head coach Billy Mohl. “Jack has done a great job his last two times out and is really establishing himself in the rotation. We swung the bats well on Friday and Saturday, but we didn’t get the job done today. Our defense, which has been really good this year, let us down today as well.”

The Bulls committed a season-high four errors in Sunday’s setback which led to four unearned runs crossing the plate.

USF’s lone run of the day came on a sacrifice fly by John Montes (Toa Alto, Puerto Rico) in the second inning, which was caught on the warning track in right field, just a couple of feet short of leaving the ballpark for his third home run in as many days.

Army took the lead with a pair of unearned runs against Cebert in the bottom of the fifth inning and tacked on four more runs against Nolan Hudi (Safety Harbor) in the seventh inning.

The Bulls had their chances in the ballgame, but stranded eight runners in the loss, including a pair of bases-loaded situations in the first and fifth frames.

Notable

  • The Bulls picked up their first weekend series win of the season against Army.
  • Cebert has allowed just one earned run and walked only two batters while striking out 11 over his last two starts (13.0 IP).
  • Drew Brutcher (Lakeland) went 1-for-2 on Sunday with a pair of walks to extend his streak of reaching base safely to 17 straight games.
  • Justin Jackson (Naples) and Parker Seay (Williston) each tossed scoreless innings out of the bullpen.    

Up Next

The Bulls travel to No. 20 Florida Gulf Coast on Tuesday, March 21 for a 6:30 p.m. first pitch in Fort Myers. Tuesday will mark USF’s seventh game this season against a Top 25 opponent.

About USF Baseball

The USF Baseball program played its first season in 1966 and is entering its 58th season in 2023 under head coach Billy Mohl (sixth season). 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 Bulls were selected in the 2022 MLB Draft. Former 2018 first-round selection, Shane McClanahan, became the program’s first-ever MLB All-Star in 2022 and was the starting pitcher for the American League.

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