By Monte Perez

Coming into the 2024 UFTL Baseball Season, Coach Billy Glessner had high hopes. The Eagles made it to the World Series last year and had a bunch of returning players coming back to South Florida. 

The team has lived up to the hype and then some. In the recent coaches poll, UFTL is ranked 2nd in the nation behind Concordia Ann Arbor.

Coach Glessner said of his teams impressive 13-2 record,"We have played well but we have a lot more to improve on. We know we can play with any team in the country, we just have to execute. Our goal is to win it all this year."

The Numbers for the baseball team are video game like. (NCCAA Rank):

• Ranked #2 in the coaches poll.
• 2nd in batting average, as a team the Eagles are batting.386.
• 3rd in earned run average 2.98 per game.
• 1st in RBI with 160 runs batting in.
• 2nd in Home Runs with 17.

Individual rankings (NCCAA):

• Wilbert Javier-Vargas, 1st in HR's with 6, 2nd in RBI with 23. 1st in total bases with 47
• JD Tibbs batting .488, 5th in the country with 18 RBI. 2nd in the nation with 42 total bases.
• Erik Scott 1st in stolen bases.18 for 18.
• Chris Martin is batting .425 with 10 base on balls.
• Ryan Rifenberg is batting .381 with 8 base on balls. 

UFTL will travel to Warner University for a 3 game series this Friday, 2-23-2024. Warner has a 9-4 record and are ranked 10th in the Coaches Poll.