ST. PETERSBURG — Eduardo A. Encina, an award-winning sportswriter with an extensive background covering Tampa Bay sports, is returning to the Times to cover the Bucs.

Encina will join Rick Stroud, Thomas Bassinger and columnists Tom Jones and Martin Fennelly on the Times' Tampa Bay Buccaneers coverage team starting Oct. 15.

Encina is completing his seventh season covering the Baltimore Orioles for The Baltimore Sun. He covered three playoff teams over that stretch, including an AL East division-winning club in 2014 that advanced to the American League Championship Series.

"The opportunity to add such an accomplished sports journalist to our team is a winner for the Times, tampabay.com and our readers on all platforms," sports editor Mike Sherman said. "I grew up in Maryland and have followed Ed's distinctive coverage of the Orioles for years. We're getting a gifted storyteller who is as comfortable in front of or behind a camera as he is behind a keyboard."

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Encina won the Maryland Sportswriter of the Year award in 2016 and for the past three seasons has been the Baltimore-Washington chapter vice chair for the Baseball Writers Association of America.

Before returning to his hometown to work for the Sun, he spent 7 ½ years in Tampa Bay, including nearly six years at the Times (then the St. Petersburg Times), covering high school sports, the Tampa Bay Rays and the Tampa Bay Lightning over his time there. He also covered high school sports and the Rays at the former Tampa Tribune.

At the Times, Encina was a part of a team that won the top investigation award from the Associated Press Sports Editors in 2007 on a series about former Rays player Elijah Dukes.

A University of Maryland graduate, Encina also worked at the York (Pa.) Daily Record, where he covered Penn State football and the local high school sports scene.

In addition to covering the Bucs, Encina's duties at the Times will include enterprise coverage of Tampa Bay's other professional sports.

"For me, returning to Tampa Bay — an area that's long been close to my heart — is surreal," Encina said. "I left the area seven years ago to come home to cover my hometown baseball team for my hometown newspaper, and it was a chapter I'll always cherish. Now, I'm thrilled to rejoin the Tampa Bay Times.

"In my previous stop here, I spent time covering two of the area's three professional sports teams. And I'm excited to cover the third by becoming a Bucs beat writer. I know what the Bucs mean to the community and how much fans depend on the Times to get the best Bucs coverage. This position will also offer the opportunity to produce enterprise along other sports beats, which will allow me to tell a wide array of stories. How can that not be enticing?

"Ultimately, it's the place that's most important. I love the Tampa Bay area. Discussing the vision for the Times' future with the newspaper's leadership is invigorating. And I know I'm joining a group of talented journalists who place a unique value on the storytelling and reporting elements that go into making the Times one of the best newspapers in the country. This is an incredible opportunity."