SCF Baseball @ Pasco-Hernando/Tampa JV Preview

The SCF baseball team (24-13, 9-6 Suncoast) will take a lite break from Suncoast play as they travel to New Port Richey to take on Pasco–Hernando State College (20-16) on Tuesday, April 2 at 3 pm before traveling to Tampa to take on the junior varsity team from the University of Tampa (15-9, 1-9 Sunshine) on Wednesday, April 3 at 6 pm. These will be the last two non-conference games for the Manatees.

Last Time Out:
The Manatees are coming off of winning a three-game series against Hillsborough. They would win the first game at HCC by a score of 13-10 and win game two at Wynn Field by a score of 5-2 before returning to HCC with 5-1 loss.

On the mound, Hill II is heavy with his sophomores in Aaron Brown, Corey Ireson and Nick Long.

Both Brown and Ireson are at 5-2 while Long is at 4-2.

In Brown's last game, he pitched a complete game in a series win over HCC with seven strikeouts. The Vanderbilt transfer has 68 strikeouts with a 3.52 ERA in his name.

Ireson has a 1.86 ERA and 58 strikeouts despite throwing five innings with two strikeouts in the loss in the series finale.

Long has a 2.19 ERA and 62 strikeouts. Long threw three innings and gave up three runs with five strikeouts.

Meanwhile at the plate, sophomores Josh Crouch and Shane Shifflett lead the team with four home runs and 17 RBI each, while redshirt sophomore Brian Dillingham leads the team with a .406 batting average and a team-leading 19 stolen bases. Crouch was 1-for-4 in the loss to HCC while Shifflett was 1-for-3 and Dillingham was 1-for-3 with the team's lone RBI.

Coach 250:
For head coach Tim Hill II, his team will be trying to get him his 250th career win. Hill II, who is in his seventh season as head coach after taking over in 2013, earned his first win

Scouting PHSC:
The Bobcats are coming off of a 7-2 loss to St. Johns River State. PHSC comes from NJCAA Region 8, but from Division II.

Sophomore Anthony Cassos leads the team with four home runs and 26 RBI while batting .318. Cassos was 2-for-3 with a walk in the loss to SJRS.

Meanwhile on the mound, freshman Sean Osceola enters with a 6-3 record with 2.29 ERA and 48 strikeouts. Osceola threw four scoreless innings with six strikeouts in a 13-7 win over SJRS.

Scouting Tampa-JV:
The Spartans enter their game against SCF on a three-game winning streak after sweeping JV Rollins College (3-2 and 11-10) before defeating IMG's postgraduate team by a score of 20-4.

Sophomores Cristian Sieman and Trevor Roberson lead the team with four home runs each while freshman Tanner Spinks leads the way with a .412 batting average.

The Spartans pitching is throwing a 6.93 ERA with freshman Zane Morrison leading the team with 27 strikeouts.

Series History (2012-Present):
Overall against PHSC, the Manatees are 6-2 against the Bobcats while against the Spartans, they are 23-1-1.

The Manatees played both teams earlier in the season winning against PHSC 4-0 (2/8) and 6-0 (3/1) and 7-0 against UT-JV (2/9).

The Bobcats last win was on February 18, 2017 where they defeated SCF 8-6 while for the Spartans, their lone win was on March 7, 2014 where they defeated SCF 4-3. SCF and Tampa did have a tie on February 10, 2012 where the score was tied at 8-8.

How to Keep Up:
Livestats will be available for both games and fans can keep up with all three teams on Twitter:
SCF: @SCFBaseball
PHSC: @phscbaseball
UT-JV: UT_Baseball