Knights stay undefeated in AAC, face USF next

Six games deep into American Athletic Conference play, the Knights haven’t lost a baseball game as they approach their grudge match of the season against USF.

Against Temple last weekend, just like Cincinnati the weekend before that, it wasn’t even close. The Knights would sweep the Owls by 6-4, then 8-2, then 12-5 in a constant battering that only got stronger as the series went forward.

In that brutal final game the Knights would score in five of eight innings, with designated hitter Sam Tolleson going three-for-three with four RBI and two walks, putting his on base percentage for the game at a perfect 1.000 while teammate Erik Barber went two-for-three with two RBI, and two beanings that allowed him to score four runs. Barber and James Vasquez would both hit their second home runs of the season in the game.

Meanwhile Zach Rodgers picked up his third win of the season on a three-inning, four-strikeout effort.

Tuesday night the Knights traveled all the way to Jacksonville for a showdown against the University of North Florida at press time. After that one-night-only event they’ll head down to Tampa this weekend for a three-game series against USF.

The Bulls (17-10, 4-2) are right below the conference-leading Knights (17-12, 6-0) in the standings. The Knights have also only played the two worst conference teams so far. The first game is at 7 p.m. April 4, followed by 6 p.m. April 5, then 1 p.m. April 6. The Knights return home April 9 to host Miami, taking the field at 6:30 p.m.

Rollins baseball

The Tars’ struggles on the diamond continued in Miami Shores as they took game one against Barry but then lost the next two to close out the series. Now the Tars (13-16, 1-11) will only barely break even in Sunshine State Conference play if they can win all of their games for the rest of the season.

That seems less than likely after their first 11 conference losses. Most of those losses weren’t even close, adding up to a combined margin of 68-25 in that span.

They played Saint Leo at press time Wednesday, and will keep up their homestand starting at 6 p.m. April 4 against Florida Tech (19-15, 3-9), then 3 p.m. April 5 and 6 p.m. that same day.