CARY, N.C. — The University of Tampa’s comeback kids got a taste of their own medicine Friday night in Game 1 of the best-of-three NCAA Division II baseball championship series.

As a result, the defending national champion Spartans find themselves on the brink of elimination.

A place with which they’ve become all too familiar.

UT was down to its final three outs earlier in the day in a rain-delayed semifinal against Northwest Nazarene before staging a miracle rally that saw it score five runs in the bottom of the ninth to survive and advance.

But the script flipped only a few hours later when the top-seeded Spartans (53-10) failed to hold onto a late lead in a 9-8 loss to Central Missouri at the USA Baseball National Training Complex.

Dayvin Johnson’s grand slam in the top of the eigh

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