TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 Expectations are different at the University of Tampa.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight from the beginning, when we start recruiting them, we let them know it is championship or bust,”\u00a0head baseball coach Joe Urso said. “And it might not be fair, but that\u2019s what we sign up for.”<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
The University of Tampa baseball team has won back-to-back national championships
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It is looking to become the first Division II team to win three in a row
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Brayden Woodburn has been the starting second baseman for each of the last two seasons
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Brayden, who is from Oviedo, says he is enjoying the opportunity to play close to home<\/p>\n
The University of Tampa baseball team is coming off winning back-to-back national championships.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is unbelievable,”\u00a0second baseman Brayden Woodburn said. “It is something, honestly, that you can\u2019t recreate. You can\u2019t tell someone what it feels like \u2014 it\u2019s really an emotion on its own.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
No Division II college baseball team has ever won three straight titles, nicknamed a \u201cthree-peat,\u201d but this year\u2019s Spartans squad is ready to try and change that.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh man, I mean winning one is hard enough, so doing two was even harder. And now, going for three, there\u2019s definitely a target on your back and everybody\u2019s shooting to win and beat you,”\u00a0Woodburn said. “So, just making sure that we play our brand of baseball Tampa baseball, we should be alright.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Woodburn has played on each of the last two title teams and is living out a Sunshine State dream. He is from Winter Springs, played at Oviedo, then started his college baseball career at State College of Florida.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s where he found a new love for the game \u2014 when it was taken away from him after he tore his labrum and rotator cuff on his throwing shoulder.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was really tough,”\u00a0Woodburn said. “The doctor told me at first that I was never going to be able to play baseball again, which was a heartbreaker. First thing I did, I went in my car to call my parents, and couldn\u2019t call them, so I was bawling my eyes out for a few minutes while on my way back to my apartment.<\/p>\n
“But after that, I called my parents, I talked to the trainer at State College of Florida, and they said, ‘Well, let\u2019s get a second opinion and see what they had to say.'”<\/p>\n
They went to Dr. Koco Eaton, an acclaimed orthopedic surgeon for the Tampa Bay Rays. The surgery was successful, and Woodburn said that while the recovery process was long, it changed his life.<\/p>\n
\u201cUltimately, I honestly feel like I turned out to be a better player and a better person after that, because it made me realize that I can\u2019t take the game for granted,” he said. “I feel like it happened at a perfect time \u2014 as much as you don\u2019t want to talk about an injury happening at the perfect time, I feel like it did, because I did feel like I might have got a little complacent with the game.”<\/p>\n
He brought that mentality with him to U-Tampa, a program with eight national championships before he got there. He helped add two more, manning the keystone and earning all-conference honors last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, we have great players and great coaches that know what they\u2019re doing day in and day out,” Woodburn said. “But it all ties back to the family aspect, and we pride ourselves on that, just making sure that we\u2019re more than just a team and bond on a deeper level,\u201d Woodburn said.<\/p>\n
Woodburn said he is thankful for his college baseball journey, and thankful for this opportunity to make some history.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s all gonna be about how we\u2019re able to come together and realize that Tampa plays baseball at a specific level,” he said. “And there\u2019s only one thing in mind, and it\u2019s to hang another ball on the wall out there. So if we can do that and have that mindset, I think we\u2019re gonna be alright.”<\/p>\n
The program will have a championship celebration during its home opener on Friday, Feb. 6, where it will also unveil a brand new video board at the ballpark.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 Expectations are different at the University of Tampa. \u201cRight from the beginning, when we start…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":145944,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[10929,1238,111,1236,70639,115,110,135,137,136],"class_list":["post-145943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-app-college-sports","tag-app-sports","tag-college-sports","tag-florida-sports","tag-michael-epps","tag-news","tag-sports","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}