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Four Tampa Baseball Players Named Daktronics All-America
May 23, 2014

Four Tampa Baseball Players Named Daktronics All-America

MARSHALL, Minn. - Four student-athletes from the No. 1 Tampa Spartans roster were named Daktronics Division II Baseball All-America, it was announced Friday.

Tampa's Stephen Dezzi (DH) and Preston Packrall (SP) were named to the second-team, while Tyler Ding (3B) and Michael Danner (OF) were named to the third team.

Dezzi, a junior from Sarasota, Fla., was named Daktronics South Region Player of the Year. He was also named All-SSC First Team, Daktronics All-South Region First Team, ABCA All-South Region First Team and NCBWA All-South Region First Team. He was also recently named a finalist for the Tino Martinez Award and the Josh Willingham Award-both Division II MVP award. Dezzi batted .372 with 50 runs scored, 45 RBIs, 67 hits and 112 total bases. He slugged .622 with 13 doubles, four triples and eight home runs.

A senior from Tampa, Fla., Packrall led the SSC with seven victories in conference play and was named SSC Pitcher of the Year. Packrall was perfect on the season with a 9-0 (7-0 in SSC action) record. He led all conference starting pitchers with a 1.63 ERA in 2014 and was second with two shutouts. In 66.1 innings of work, Packrall struck out 40 batters, walked just 11 batters and allowed just 12 earned runs. The senior pitched 40.2 innings in conference play with 22 strikeouts, seven bases-on-balls and 11 earned runs. Opponents managed just a .216 batting average against Packrall.

Ding, a senior from Tampa, Fla., led the Spartans with a .392 batting average. He recorded a team-leading 72 hits. Ding collected 90 total bases and slugged .492 with 12 doubles and two home runs. Ding drove in 38 runs and scored 44 times. He was named Daktronics All-South Region First Team.

Danner, a senior from Tampa, Fla., was named All-SSC First Team, NCBWA All-South First Team, Daktronics All-South Region First Team and ABCA All-South First Team. He recorded a .327 batting averaging with 51 hits, 42 RBIs and 39 runs scored. Danner slugged .571 with 10 doubles, two triples and eight home runs.

The Sunshine State Conference also had four players named Daktronics All-America Honorable Mention including: C Sal Giardina, Jr. (Lynn), UT Alex DeBellis (Lynn), SP David Heintz (Tampa), RP Bill Mendek (Lynn).