CENTRAL FLORIDA – The North Park baseball team is traveling to Central Florida to play six games on their spring break trip. Coach Luke Johnson's Vikings open play at the RussMatt Central Florida Invitational tomorrow, March 12, with a 2:30 PM EST game against the University of Mount Union.
Sophomore infielder Justin Swanson currently leads the NPU offense through eight games played. Swanson is holding a slash line of .345/.457/.483 with four doubles and six runs scored, playing errorless defense in the infield with 20 assists.
Bobby Bartlett (.333), Nick Cecchi (.308), and Logan Peters (.300) are all at or above a .300 batting average while Ranko Stevanovic and freshman Reece Arakaki both add a pair of doubles.
Newcomers Nathan Sommerfeld (.600 BA, 3-for-5 with a double, 3 RBI), Alex DiVito (3 starts, two hits), Wilber Reyes-Delgado (1 start, 1 hit/RBI), and Garrett Bragg (5.2 IP, 11 K's) have all made an impact in the early spring trips.
On the mound, aforementioned lefty Bobby Bartlett has seen the most success for the NPU staff. In his three starts, Bartlett has worked 15.2 innings, struck out 23 batters, and is holding his opponents to a sub-.200 batting average at .197.
All-Region righty Ethan Sund threw six innings against 12th-ranked (and now 8th-ranked Webster University last Saturday. In the hard luck loss, Sund struck out five Gorloks and allowed just one earned run and four hits to the top-10 opponent.
Finally, working his way into a starting role, righty Brendan Russ had a career performance in last Saturday's near complete game win over Transylvania. Russ worked 8.2 innings and struck out seven batters in his win, allowing only three earned runs.
For a membership fee, the RussMatt Central Florida Invitational Games are viewable at this link.
