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UTampa baseball chases historic three-peat
FOX 13's Mark Skol Jr. reports.
TAMPA, Fla. - UTampa baseball season is back.
"It's a long road," UTampa junior outfielder Maddox King said. "We finally made it through the fall, and we are just excited to get going."
The Spartans are excited to get back on the field after winning it all in back-to-back seasons.
What they're saying:
"Here at Tampa there has always been the expectation to just win the national championship," UTampa junior pitcher Robert Satin said.
Those expectations have not changed. In fact, they've amplified.
"Let's try and become the first and have history in the making again," UTampa baseball head coach Joe Urso said.
The backstory:
Last season, the Spartans won a Division II record 10th national championship. However, this year, they aim to do something that has never happened at this level – to win three straight national titles.
The Spartans have had the chance to complete a three-peat two prior times in program history but were unable to get the job done.
"That would be generational," King said. "That would be unbelievable if we could pull that off. It has never been done before, but I think we've got the team to do it."
By the numbers:
However, doing it all over again with this team, this year, has more challenges than in the past. There are 23 new players on the team. Just 12 Spartans are returning and only four of those 12 saw substantial playing time in 2025.
"[There are] a lot of new guys," Urso said. "It's been fun trying to build that family atmosphere early on, and we will learn a lot together as the season goes and hopefully be able to build another championship team."
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The Spartans say the new guys have fit right into the culture that has already been established at Tampa.
"You know it is a new team dynamic every year," King said. "I am just really excited to see what we can do and how successful we can be."
The team believes they'll achieve that success in multiple ways.
"I think we've got good depth in the pitching staff," King said. "I think we have all of the bats to do it and the good defense to back it up."
And, the Spartans are ready for a trip to get back to the mountaintop once for a third year in a row.
"We're going to do it again," King said.
What's next:
UTampa opens the season on the road with a three-game series starting on Friday against Georgia College and State University.
The Source: The information in this story was gathered by FOX 13’s Mark Skol, Jr. during an interview with the UTampa baseball team before a practice.