Sullivan

Imagine playing the last game of the season at your home field with the visiting team having more fans then you. Well this was the case for the JV baseball team for the University of Tampa. When I asked utility player sophomore Heath Pritchard are the games always this empty with fans he laughed and said “only the varsity gets a good turn out for games”.
The University of Tampa JV baseball team lost their season finale to Hillsborough Community College 13-2. HCC had a record of 25-22 after the game versus the Spartans. Although there were more fans for the visiting team the Spartans played hard and never gave up.
The Spartans seemed never to get into the game as HCC put up five runs in the 1st inning. The Spartans were not able to score until the 8th inning. The bats were not doing well versus HCC pitchers.
The same can not be said for the bats of the HCC players though. They were connecting for singles, doubles, and even a homerun. In the top of the 4th Ryan Collins the catcher for HCC hit a monstrous three run homerun. The hit was dead center and as soon as the ball hit the bat there was no doubt that it was a homerun.
Since it was the last game of the season I found out that Tampa played pretty much everybody. So there were many pitchers for Tampa so it was hard for the pitchers to get into a groove.
The starting pitcher for Tampa Mario Echeverria could never get into a groove because he was taking out so quickly. Finally the 5th inning the Tampa pitcher was able to control the game.
Tampa put in utility player Marc Peretzman. Utility player means that these players don’t have an assigned position but instead can play any position that the coach needs. Marc is a sidearm pitcher who didn’t allow any runs in the 5th inning. The HCC hitters had not faced a side arm pitcher in the game yet so Marc’s style caught them by surprise.
Although they were losing and never could get their offense going these kids still played as hard as they could. First basemen Kevin Otero made a spectacular scoop to end the inning. The throw to him was bad but he was able to save the team and end the inning.
Second basemen Jazz Machin sophomore made one of the nicest catches I have ever seen. The leadoff hitter for HCC hit a rocket line drive that looked like a base hit until Jazz jumped up and grabbed it.
Now what makes this catch spectacular is that how fast he was to react and also the fact that Jazz is listed as 5-4 yet he made himself 6-2 to catch that ball.
I asked Kevin Otero what happened today he said “ We are a JV team and when ever we play kids from Community College there is a greater chance of losing by a lot because there not like a JV team.” All these kids will go to a four year college and make the varsity team.” When we play other JV teams we dominate them.”
Even though they lost you have to admire these kids for playing a sport they love. Chances are not many players will get moved up to Tampa varsity but these kids still give it their all every practice and game because they are doing something they love.