Box Score  l  Florida trip stats  l  Alderson-Broaddus recap (W 3-1)

TAMPA, Fla. – East Stroudsburg University scored two runs to tie No. 1 Tampa, 4-4, in the seventh inning, but the Spartans answered with two runs in the bottom of the inning and added a pair of insurance runs in the eighth for an 8-4 win in the final game of the Warriors' spring break trip on Tuesday night.

ESU (12-5), ranked No. 3 in the NCBWA Atlantic Region poll, pushed the nation's top team with sophomores Keith Moyer and Keenan Stare holding the Spartans to four runs on seven hits in the first six innings before they responded late.

The Warriors finish their trip to Florida with a 5-3 record and earned a 3-1 win over Alderson-Broaddus earlier in the day on Tuesday.

Tampa (17-3), which has made 12 straight trips to the NCAA Division II Tournament, has won six regional titles since 2000 and won the national championship in 2006 and 2007.

The Warriors scored the tying runs with two outs in the seventh. Junior OF Eric Boyer started the rally with a walk and junior 3B Brian Ernst, sophomore OF Chris Knott and junior C Nico Delerme strung together three straight base hits to tie it at 4-all before Preston Packrall came on for Tampa to get out of the threat.

A leadoff triple by leadoff hitter Damon Elder sparked the Spartans in the bottom of the seventh. After a walk, Stare got a strikeout for the first out of the inning, but cleanup hitter Eric Grabe put Tampa in front for good with a base hit. Stare got another strikeout before pinch-hitter Heath Pritchard singled to score Anthony Caronia with Grabe thrown out advancing to third on the play.

Tampa added two unearned runs off senior Ryan Beck in the eighth to make it 8-4. Packrall, the last of four Spartan pitchers to take the mound, earned the win with 2.1 perfect innings.

Tampa took a 2-0 lead in the second with a leadoff homer by Jake Schrader and a sacrifice bunt after a double and single, both with one out, and both teams traded runs in the third and fourth innings.

The Warriors got on the board with a leadoff walk by sophomore 1B Mark Romano, a single by senior 2B Ryan Guarino, a sacrifice bunt by junior OF Zac Menendez and RBI groundout by senior SS Evan Gallagher.

They took advantage of another leadoff walk to make it 3-2 in the fourth. Ernst walked to open the frame, moved to third on an error with one out, and scored on a sacrifice fly by freshman DH Robert Patete.

The Warriors had a chance to dent a 4-2 deficit in the fifth, but reliever Aaron Grebasi got the last out of the inning to strand three runners on base after coming on for starter Eric Luksis.

Moyer started for the Warriors and went 4.0 innings, striking out four and allowing four runs on six hits and a walk.

Stare took his first loss of the season after closing out the 3-1 win over Alderson-Broaddus for his third career save earlier in the day. He threw 3.0 innings, struck out three, walked one and gave up two runs on four hits. He gave up a one-out triple in the fifth but got out of the inning, then threw a perfect sixth before Tampa scored twice in the seventh.

ESU had seven hits and drew five walks off the Spartans pitchers. Knott, the No. 5 hitter, was 2-for-4 and Ernst, the cleanup hitter, was 1-for-3 with two walks and two runs. Gallagher, Knott, Delerme and Patete all drove in runs.

The Warriors will head north on Wednesday and are back on the field on Sunday when they travel to Philadelphia for a doubleheader at USP at 1 p.m.

The 24-game PSAC East schedule begins the following weekend as ESU hosts Mansfield on Friday and travels to the Northern Tier on Saturday for a pair of doubleheaders.