Weeks Hits for Cycle as Ospreys Claim Series

Saturday, March 30

Jacksonville, Fla.

1:00 p.m.

University of North Florida

20-10, 4-2

East Tennessee State

14-10, 4-5

ETSU

North Florida

Photo by: Todd Drexler

3/30/2013 4:38:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

By: North Florida Athletics

Boxscore | Postgame Interview (Drew Weeks)

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The University of North Florida's Drew Weeks hit for the cycle on Saturday afternoon, helping the Ospreys to an 11-4 victory over East Tennessee State at Dusty Rhodes Field at Harmon Stadium. Weeks became the first player in school history to hit for the cycle. The sophomore finished the game 4-for-5 with a home run, a triple, a double, a single, two runs scored and a team-best five RBI.

The cycle is the first in North Florida's baseball history. Weeks opened the game with a home run in the second inning. He followed that with a triple in the fourth inning. In the fifth inning, the sophomore singled to move one step closer to history. Weeks flew out to right field in the bottom of the seventh inning, but came through with a double through the left side of the infield in the eighth to make history.

Offensively, the Ospreys recorded a season-high 22 hits on the day, including nine extra base hits on the day. Every batter in the starting lineup for North Florida recorded at least one base hit with eight of the nine batters notching multiple hits. Corey Bass, Donnie Dewees and Corbin Olmstead each had three hits apiece. Weeks and Bass each had a home run in the game, while Dewees added a pair of doubles. Tyler Marincov, Ryan Roberson and Garrick Ferguson also chipped in doubles on the day.

On the mound, starting pitcher Michael Renner picked up his fourth victory of the season and his first Atlantic Sun Conference victory. The southpaw worked 7.2 innings scattering 10 hits. Renner surrendered four runs with three earned runs en route to securing the A-Sun series victory. Renner allowed one walk, while striking out six batters. He notched two 1-2-3 innings and ended a pair of innings with back-to-back strikeouts.

Renner was relieved by Olmstead who worked a perfect 1.1 innings. He induced a pair of ground outs to go along with a pair of fly outs.

North Florida was the first team to score, plating a pair of runs in the bottom of the second inning. Dewees led off the inning with a single, but was erased on a double play. Olmstead continued the inning with a single to right field. Weeks put the Ospreys on a the scoreboard with a two-run home run to right center field, giving UNF a 2-0 lead.

ETSU chipped into the lead with a run in the top of the third inning. The Buccaneers led off the inning with a single and advanced the runner to second base with a sacrifice bunt. The base runner moved to third on a ground out and came around to score on a double down the left field line. North Florida ended the inning with a ground out.

The Bucs knotted the score on one swing in the top of the fourth inning. Andrew Green led off the inning with a solo home run down the right field line to tie the game at 2-2.

North Florida regained the lead in the bottom of the fourth inning with six runs, batting around for the 13th time this season. Dewees started the inning with a double to right center field. Roberson followed with a RBI double to right center field to score Dewees for the first run of the inning. Olmstead followed with a single up the middle, leaving the Ospreys with runners on the corners. Weeks scored both runners with a two-RBI triple to right center field. Ferguson extended the inning with an RBI double down the right field line. Bass gave UNF an 8-2 advantage with a two-RBI homer to left center field – the sixth straight base hit and fifth extra-base hit of the inning.

The Ospreys added a pair of runs in the top of the seventh inning. Roberson and Olmstead started the inning with back-to-back singles. With two outs, Bass singled through the left side to score Roberson. Joe Wielbruda followed with an RBI single up the middle to push the advantage to 10-2.

The Bucs scored a pair of runs in the top of the eighth inning. With a runner on second and two outs, ETSU used a single and a fielding error by the Ospreys to score a run. The next batter followed with an RBI single to cut the deficit to 10-4.

UNF added a run in the bottom of the eighth inning. Dewees doubled to right center field to lead off the inning. With two outs, Weeks doubled passed the third baseman, scoring Dewees on the play. The double completed the cycle for the sophomore and recorded history for the Ospreys.

North Florida returns to the field on Tuesday, April 2, as the Ospreys play host to in-state rival Bethune-Cookman. The game will be the second-to-last “Toss It Back Tuesday” of the season and begin at 6:00 p.m. Live stats, live video and in-game tweets (@OspreyBSB) will be available throughout the game.