Jack Jasiak set a new AAC Championship record with 12 strikeouts in a 5-0 win over Tulane on Thursday.
CLEARWATER, Fla. (May 27, 2021) – Jack Jasiak (Spring Hill) set a new American Athletic Conference Baseball Championship record with a career-high 12 strikeouts on Thursday night as the University of South Florida Bulls (26-26) blanked Tulane University (29-23), 5-0.
The win propels USF into the conference tournament semifinals on Saturday.
Jasiak (6-7) turned in his 11th quality start of the season. The redshirt freshman allowed just two hits and one walk over 8.2 IP. With the final two outs of the third inning, Jasiak proceeded to retire 19 Green Wave batters in a row until issuing a two-out walk in the ninth which concluded his stellar outing.
Orion Kerkering (Venice) entered in relief and struck out the final batter of the ballgame.
Offensively, the Bulls took a 2-0 lead in the top of the third inning on an opposite field homer run by Roberto Peña (Caracas, Venezuela) – his second longball in as many tournament games.
Jake Sullivan (Tampa) padded the lead to 3-0 with a two-out RBI-single in the fifth and USF tacked on two more runs in the eighth frame. Nelson Rivera (Toa Alto, Puerto Rico) recorded an RBI-single in the eighth as the Bulls were also aided by a pair of Tulane errors in the inning.
Quotable
Head coach Billy Mohl on Jasiak’s performance: “That’s about as good as I’ve seen Jake pitch, and he’s pitched some great games for us in the past. He kept getting strong as the game went along, and gave us a big time performance. That’s who he is.”
On the crowd support at BayCare Ballpark: “Our guys can hear them, and it gets them fired up. It’s been a long time since we’ve been able to have a really energetic crowd in our stands, so it’s just great to see.”
On the outlook heading into Saturday: “Both of our starting pitchers have given us deep outings. Our bullpen is fresh and our rotation is set up well.”
Notable
- Jasiak has recorded 14 quality starts in 18 career outings.
- Jasiak is 4-0 with four quality starts and a 0.61 ERA (2 ER/29.2 IP) over his last four starts.
- Carmine Lane (Lake Placid) went 3-for-5 for his team-leading 21st multi-hit effort of the year.
- Peña padded his team lead in home runs (12) and RBI (37).
- USF tossed its sixth shutout of the season.
- The Bulls enter Saturday’s semifinals on a four-game winning streak, having outscored their opponents, 27-4.
- The Bulls will advance to the American Championship semifinals for the second time (2018), doing so out of the winner’s bracket for the first time.
- A win on Saturday would send USF to its first American Championship final in program history.
Up Next
The Bulls will await the winner of Friday’s game between No. 3 seed Wichita State and No. 2 seed Tulane. USF’s semifinal game is scheduled to begin 47 minutes after the conclusion of the 9 a.m. game on Saturday, May 29. If the Bulls were to lose that game, they’d play a rematch against the same team later that day.
About USF Baseball
The USF Baseball program played its first season in 1966 and is entering its 56th season in 2021. The Bulls have won 1,628 games entering the 2021 season and made 13 NCAA Tournament appearances, including three since 2015. The Bulls have won four conference tournament titles (3 Sun Belt and 1 Metro) and had 126 all-conference selections. USF baseball players have been recognized with All-America honors 12 times, most recently with third baseman David Villar in 2018. Four players were selected in the 2018 MLB Draft, including the program’s fourth first round selection in pitcher Shane McClanahan, who appeared in the 2020 World Series with the Tampa Bay Rays. The Bulls saw continued success in head coach Billy Mohl’s first season in 2018, reaching 36 wins, advancing to the semifinals of the conference tournament for the first time since 2012, and making the program’s latest NCAA Tournament appearance while also achieving a ranking in multiple polls for the final two months of the season.
