VALDOSTA, Ga. – The Valdosta State Blazers travel down to the Sunshine State to take on the top ranked Tampa Spartans in a midweek game on Tuesday, Apr. 1 at 5 p.m. VSU enters the matchup at 20-14 (14-6 GSC) while UT is 25-6 (10-2 SSC).
Tuesday's game will be free to watch on the SSC Digital Network. Please visit the baseball schedule page for more game information.
The Spartans won the 2024 NCAA DII National Championship as they went 52-8 overall and 28-3 at home. In 2025, Tampa is 16-1 at home with their lone loss being to Quincy back in February.
Since 2011, Valdosta State is 7-3 against Tampa with the most recent matchup coming back in 2023 when the Blazers knocked off the then No. 2 Spartans as current Blazer
Trent Lewis hit a walk off double and picked up the win on the mound in a 11 inning thriller as VSU came out on top, 15-14. The Blazers are 4-1 in Tampa with their lone loss in 2022 by a final of 9-3.
The Blazers have won five in a row, as they beat Georgia College on Tuesday before sweeping Mississippi College Friday and Saturday for a massive sweep as VSU finished the homestand with a 6-2 record. Valdosta State is currently sitting in second in the GSC standings as the sweep propelled them to second after West Florida dropped two out of three versus Auburn Montgomery.
VSU slugger
Orlando Pena continued to mash, as he launched three home runs in four games last week. Pena went 6-14 at the plate and drove in nine while only striking out a total of two times. Pena's biggest home run came on Saturday afternoon, as he hit a solo shot to tie the game at 2-2 as Valdosta State stole game two from Mississippi College. Pena leads the GSC in HRs and RBI as he has hit 14 homers and driven in 50 while slashing .339/.411/.750. On the mound, the VSU starting trio had another great weekend as
Zac Dodson,
Hunter Booth, and
Drake LaRoche all picked up a win as all of their ERA's sit below 4.00 this season.
Ryan Brown picked up his third save of the year on Saturday as he now has an ERA of 1.69 in 16.0 innings pitched as the main closer for Jan Wesiberg.
As a team, Valdosta State is batting .299 and leads the league in runs scored at 259 in total while averaging 7.5 a contest. A large part of that is drawing walks and converting as they have walked a total of 157 times which is also the best in the league along with 63 doubles. The pitching staff holds an ERA of 4.81 as opponents are hitting .266 against the Blazers and have walked a total of 102 batters which is second best in the conference.
The Tampa Spartans hit also hit .299 as a team as they have scored a total of 241 runs for an average of 7.7 a game. The Spartan arms hold an ERA of 3.50 and have struck out a total of 274 batters while opponents are hitting .233 against UT.
The Spartans are led by head coach Joe Urso, who is 1,032-293-1 in 25 years at the helm of UT. Urso has won six National Championships in Tampa and was 18 40+ win seasons.
Individually, outfielder Jordan Williams is batting .364 on the year and has stolen 48 bases while scoring a total of 35 runs and driving in 25 on three home runs. Coach Urso's son, JD is the starting shortstop and is batting .330 on 35 hits and has a team high .456 on base percentage while also leading the team in RBI with 35. VSU will probably see Jacob Fletcher or Robert Satin start for UT tomorrow in the midweek matchup. Fletcher is 3-0 on the year with a 2.11 ERA in 21.1 innings pitched and has picked up a save. Satin is a sophomore southpaw who has started in three games and has an ERA of 3.28 in 24.2 innings pitched.
Following the midweek matchup, Valdosta State will hit the road as they travel to Montgomery, Ala. to play Auburn Montgomery in a three game set.
