Phillies lose to NCAA division II baseball team

In the first game of the Spring, the Philadelphia Phillies lost to a Division II baseball team. The Phillies suffered a tough loss to the University of Tampa. UT is viewed as, arguably, the best Division II baseball school in the country.

“I’m in total disbelief that the Phillies lost to a college team. It was a huge surprise in my opinion,” senior Tyler Emge said.

The University of Tampa is ranked #1 in the country for Division II Baseball and has the talent to compete at the Division I level.

“I think Tampa should be playing at the D1 level. The certainly have a team full of guys that can play at that level and still put up good numbers,” Emge said.

The Phillies were maintaining a 2-1 lead going into the sixth inning where they later gave up five unanswered runs that ultimately led to their defeat in the exhibition game against UT.

“I know the Phillies were missing some of their best offensive players, but there is still no reason that professional athletes should be losing to college kids. They’re supposed to be the best players in the world. It sounds like it’s going to be a very long season,” senior Mike Osenbach said.

Either the Phillies are going to have an extremely unsuccessful season, or the University of Tampa is just that good and will completely annihilate the competition at the D2 level. However, as previously stated, the Phillies were playing without the presence of their star first baseman Ryan Howard and their second baseman, Chase Utley.

“I’m just hoping this season isn’t as big of a disappointment as the last season was because it makes me not want to watch any games,” Osenbach said.