LAKELAND, Fla. – The No. 13 Florida Southern College baseball team won the series opener against No. 1 University of Tampa 6-3 on Friday night at Henley Field, head coach
Rick O'Dette's 700
th career win.
The Moccasins (23-6, 8-2 SSC) controlled the game from the start with a 2-0 lead, holding off late runs for the upset. The Spartans (24-5, 9-1 SSC) lost their first conference game of 2025, unable to stop the steady scoring of FSC. O'Dette earned his 700th win between his time at St. Joseph's (494 wins), Saint Leo (183 wins), and Florida Southern (23 wins) spanning 25 seasons as a head coach.
Rohsean Riley had a perfect 4-for-4 outing at the plate with three RBI to lead the Mocs to a win, snapping a six-game losing streak to the Spartans.
Mikey Scott, Grant Thoroman, and
Jevin Relaford each had solo hits for the team's seven, edging out Tampa's six team hits. Thoroman, who drew two walks, stole four games in the game, with another two from Relaford for six total bags.
Sachem Ramos got his sixth win of the season, going seven innings, allowing only five hits with 113 pitches. Ramos struck out four, throwing six scoreless innings, only allowing two runs to the Spartans. He was relieved by
Casey O'Dell, who only gave up one hit in his two innings to seal the 6-3 win for the Mocs.
The Spartans had a multi-hit day from Nico Saladino and Brayden Woodburn, each with two. Tampa had solo hits by Mike Valdez and Kevin Karstetter to round out the six team hits. Tampa left 11 men on base to FSC's nine in the three-run loss to the Mocs. CJ Williams got the start, just his second loss of the year, going six innings with three earned runs. He was relieved by Eli Thurmund, Logan Wash, and Carson Caso for the final two innings.
The game opened in favor of the Mocs after shutting down the first inning and getting on the board with two runs in the bottom half. Scott smashed a one-out homer to right field for the first run, followed by an RBI single by Riley for the 2-0 lead. FSC added a third run in the fourth inning off a groundout RBI by Simpson, 3-0, as Ramos kept UTampa scoreless through the first four innings.
An RBI double scored the first run for the Spartans in the fifth, followed by a sac fly for the second run, 3-2 FSC. The Mocs responded with another RBI single by Riley in the bottom half to bring the score to a 4-2 FSC advantage. Riley then had his third RBI single of the day in the seventh to make it a three-run lead through seven. In the bottom eighth, Relaford stole third and scored on a throwing error to make it a 6-2 FSC lead into the final frame. Tampa didn't go easy, hitting an RBI double to make it a 6-3 score with two outs. A swinging strikeout for O'Dell retired the final batter, keeping the 6-3 FSC win.
The Mocs will wrap up their top 15 series against the Spartans tomorrow, March 29, with a doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m.
