UNF Set for Pair of Midweek Games

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The University of North Florida baseball team returns to action with a pair of midweek nonconference road games. The Ospreys travel to Tampa, Fla., to take on USF on Tuesday, March 23, at 7 p.m., before heading to Daytona, Fla., for a game against Bethune-Cookman on Wednesday, March 24, at 6 p.m.

The Ospreys enter the week 11-10 overall after opening Atlantic Sun Conference play by taking a series 2-1 with crosstown rival Jacksonville in baseball's portion of the SunTrust River City Rumble. UNF dropped the first game of the weekend, 13-10, at Dusty Rhodes Field at Harmon Stadium, but responded with a 2-0 victory over JU at the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville on Saturday afternoon. In the rubber match between the two teams, North Florida and Jacksonville waited out a three and a half hour rain delay before taking the field. The Ospreys claimed a 4-3 victory to win the series.

Michael Smith helped lead the Ospreys to two wins against crosstown rival Jacksonville in the SunTrust River City Rumble to earn Atlantic Sun Player of the Week honors.

Smith led the team in batting average (.500), hits (11), runs (6), doubles (3), triples (1), home runs (2), RBI (10), total bases (22), slugging percentage (1.000) and on-base percentage (.522) in five games on the week. The junior outfielder hit safely in all five games, recording four multiple hit games. In two midweek games against Troy, he finished 6-for-10, collecting three hits in each game. The civil engineering major finished 3-for-5 with seven RBI in the second game against the Trojans, falling just a single shy of hitting for the cycle.

He finished the opening weekend of A-Sun competition 5-for-12 (.417) with a double and a home run. Smith hit a home run in the eighth inning against Jacksonville to help propel UNF to a 2-0 victory on Saturday and had two hits and an RBI in UNF's 4-3 victory against JU Sunday.

Senior Michael Kelly was named one of the league's other top performers. Kelly pitched a complete game shutout Saturday against crosstown rival and A-Sun power Jacksonville, UNF's first complete game and first shutout of the season. The communications major scattered seven hits through 9.0 innings with only one extra base hit. Kelly fanned seven batters and issued just three walks. Kelly held the potent JU offense to a .233 batting average, stranding seven runners on base.

Coming off the best start of his collegiate career, senior LHP Teddy Kaufman leads the University of South Florida baseball team into a mid-week contest against in-state foe North Florida at Red McEwen Field at 7 p.m on Tuesday, March 23. The Bulls come into the first of two games this season against the Ospreys winners of two straight and four of their last five contests. Last weekend, the Bulls claimed their first series win of 2010 by defeating Mercer in two out of three games. The contest marks the seventh all-time meeting between the two schools with each team claiming three wins. Last year, the Bulls and Ospreys split the season series with each winning one at their home field.

Bethune-Cookman completed its three-game weekend MEAC sweep of FAMU with a 13-0 win (7 inning mercy rule win) Sunday. Junior RHP Julio Morales pitched a two-hit shutout over six innings and the Wildcats had 14 hits offensively highlighted by Matt Wright's inside the park two-run home run. B-CU has hit 35 home runs this season through 21 games. The Wildcats trail only New Mexico State and VMI in team home runs this year and the 'Cats eight-game winning streak has seen the team batting average rise to .336 following Sunday's 14-hit offensive performance. The Wildcats play Ohio State on Monday night before hosting the Ospreys on Wednesday.

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