GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- The start time for Friday's series opener between Tusculum and sixth-ranked Tampa has been moved up one hour and will start at 5 p.m. from Pioneer Park.
It will be the first of three games over three days between the Pioneers (21-10) and the Spartans (23-8). Game two of the series will be Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m., followed by Sunday's series finale at noon.
Tusculum and Tampa have met three times on the baseball diamond, but this will be the first regular season meetings ever between the two schools. UT leads the all-time series 3-1 including a 5-3 win over the Pioneers in the winner's bracket final of the 2007 NCAA Division II South Regional in Tampa.
The two teams first met in the 2003 elimination bracket final of the NCAA South Regional in Lakeland, Florida as the Spartans won 8-2. TC defeated Tampa 3-0 in the 2005 South Regional opener in Lakeland, but the Spartans edged TC later in the regional with a 7-6 victory.
Following this weekend's series, the Pioneers will be on the road on Tuesday at Trevecca Nazarene before returning home next weekend to host 29th-ranked Catawba for a three-game South Atlantic Conference series.
