Baseball Goes 12 Innings to Down #8 Tampa

MIAMI SHORES, Fla.—The Barry Buccaneers defeated the #8 Tampa Spartans 7-6 in 12 innings on Friday night. It was the third straight extra-inning game to start a conference series and the second straight win for the Bucs. 

It was Barry’s (28-12, 14-2) freshman shortstop, Adrian English, who came up with the heroics in the bottom of the 12th with a two-out single to score James Young with the game-winner.

Tampa (27-11, 11-5) took control of the game early and held on to the reins for almost the entirety of regulation. The Spartans struck first in the top of the forth with a two-run homer by Shawn Pleffner.

In the bottom of the fourth, the Bucs answered back and tallied a long ball for themselves. Young launched the 2-0 pitch over the left field fence for a solo shot to cut the deficit down to one at 2-1.

Tampa added two more runs the in the top of the sixth after Barry starter Manny Rodriguez walked the first three batters of the inning. Rodriguez then struck out Andrew Jones then forced Damon Elder to ground to first base. The Barry first baseman, Dean Green, fielded the ball cleanly and threw home in an attempt to retire the lead runner. However, Green’s throw skipped in to Chris Leon allowing Patrick Donahue to score from third. Then Rodriguez walked another Spartan with the bases loaded to make it a 4-1 game in favor of Tampa.

The Bucs landed another solo bomb in the sixth, this time off the bat of Manny Pedrozo, his third in five games since taking over the starting DH job. Then again in the seventh, Drew Dwelly blasted his 11th home run of the season to make it a 4-3 game with two innings remaining.

In the top of the eighth, Pleffner scored on a Jones double and Jones scored on a throwing error by Leon to make it Tampa 6 and Barry 3.

The resilient Buccaneers continued to battle, collecting two runs in the bottom of the eighth. Leon started things off with a double down the left field line and Pedrozo reached on a fielding error by the Tampa shortstop to put runners on the corners with one out. Young rocketed a double to left center to score Leon and move Pedrozo to third. With one out, the hero of last Friday’s 13 inning thriller, Lyndon Coleman, lifted a sacrifice fly to right field that scored Pedrozo and chip the Tampa lead down to one at 6-5.

In the bottom of the ninth, Dwelly was hit by the pitch and English laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt to advance Dwelly to second with one out. Tampa intentionally walked Green to face the Buccaneer cleanup hitter, Matt Petty. Petty worked a full count and eventually drew the walk to load the bases with one out for Leon. Leon lifted the 3-2 pitch to left mere feet from a walk-off grand slam, but Jones made the catch on the warning track. Dwelly tagged up on the Leon fly and scored to tie the game at 6-6. Pedrozo then struck out to end the inning and send the game to extra innings.

In the bottom of the 12th, the heavens opened up in more ways than one. With light showers starting to fall on Feinbloom Field, Young jolted the Barry offense with a one-out single to third base. Coleman then reached after belting a ground ball toward short that hit the wet infield grass and took a nasty hop into left field. After Harold Holness struck out swinging, with runners on the corners and one out, Tampa chose to intentionally walk Dwelly to load the bases for the Buccaneer freshman. English worked the count even at 2-2 then looped a Texas leaguer into center field for the walk-off victory.

English went 3-5 with a game ending RBI while Young collected a 4-for-6 night with two runs and two RBI. All but two Buccaneers tallied hits in the affair. Rodriguez went six innings, giving up four hits, four runs, striking out seven and walking five. T.J. Mullins came in in relief of Rodriguez in the sixth and also went six complete innings. Mullins only allowed two runs off four hits and struck out six.

Barry continues their series against Tampa Saturday, April 16 starting at high noon. Live radio coverage can always be heard on the Buccaneer Broadcasting Network starting just before the first pitch.

Barry 7, Tampa 6
(04/15/11 at Miami Shores, Fla.)
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Tampa............... 000 202 020 000 - 6 8 1 (27-11, 11-5 SSC)
Barry................... 000 101 121 001 - 7 13 2 (28-12, 14-2 SSC)
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Pitchers: Tampa - Thrailkill; Kiley(8); Gerbasi(9) and Bourdon; Pendleton. Barry -
Manny Rodriguez; T.J. Mullins(7) and Chris Leon.
Win-T.J. Mullins(3-2) Loss-Gerbasi(1-2) T-3:48 A-128
HR UTB - Pleffner (3).
HR BUB - Drew Dwelly (11); Manny Pedrozo (2); James Young (7).