Tampa Tops No. 15 Rollins in SSC Series Opener

WINTER PARK, Fla. - The University of Tampa (15-7, 3-4 SSC) softball team claimed a 3-1 victory over No. 15 Rollins College (19-2, 5-2 SSC) at Martin Luther King Jr. Park on Friday evening.

Senior Julia Morrow started for the Spartans and earned her 12th victory of the season. She tossed 7.0 innings with 11 strikeouts while allowing one runs on six hits.

Rollins took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the third on an RBI single by Hailee Keisling that scored Jule Kranz.

Tampa answered in the top of the fourth by scoring three runs to take a 3-1 advantage. The Spartans loaded the bases and evened the score at 1-1 after pinch hitter Taylor Szostak was hit by a pitch that plated pinch runner Meagan Brislin. Jenna Halper followed with a clutch two RBI double to bring around Lindsay Dring and Alyssa Colletti for the lead.

Morrow and the Tampa defense held strong through the final innings to claim the 3-1 victory.

Meagan Burke, Dring, and Halper each contributed a base hit each to the Spartan offense.

UT will return to action Saturday afternoon for a doubleheader at Rollins to conclude the SSC series with the first game scheduled for 1 p.m. Live stats will be available through
www.tampa.statbroadcast.com.

Fans may follow University of Tampa athletics on Twitter (www.twitter.com/utspartans), Facebook (www.facebook.com/tampaspartans), YouTube (youtube.com/utathletics) and Instragram (tampaspartans). UT also offers blAst, a free text messaging service that sends text alerts following all Spartan events. To sign up, please register at www.tampaspartans.com.