BOCA RATON, Fla. - The wait for Jay Bergman is finally over. The UCF men's baseball coach watched his Knights out-slug the league's top team, sending FAU to a 14-9 defeat at FAU Stadium Friday evening and in turn saw his career win total reach 1000 games.
UCF (29-19, 16-6) used the strong relief pitching of Von David Stertzbach and Clay Timpner's four RBI's, to hand a tough FAU (36-10, 19-3) squad only its third loss in the Atlantic Sun.
Stertzbach pitched 5 1/3 innings giving up two runs and striking out eight and moves his record to a perfect 6-0. He entered the game in the bottom of the fourth to spell Knights starter Mark Michael. Michael who lasted 3 2/3 and struck out five, got off to a rough start spotting the Owls two runs in the first inning but settled down in the second striking out the side. UCF would take advantage of two FAU errors in the third to go ahead 3-2.
For the Knights the offensive outburst came in the fourth inning. After loading the bases with no outs, Jason Graham hit a laser-shot off pitcher Chris Pillsbury that caromed into left field scoring two runs giving the Knights a 5-2 advantage. Dee Brown, who finished the game with three RBI's and now has a team-leading 45 on the season, added a run-scoring single. However, the big blow belonged to Timpner. After UCF loaded the bases for the second time in the inning, Timpner hit a bases-clearing triple and pushed the lead to 10-2.
FAU made things interesting in the bottom of the fourth scoring six runs of their own. Four of those runs came on one swing of the bat by Mike Cox. His grand slam was followed up by a shot over the right-field wall by Matt Pali and suddenly the UCF lead was cut to three at 10-7.
The Knights continued to work the bats adding a pair of runs in both the fifth and sixth innings. Brown, Timpner and Graham accounted for 10 of UCF's runs as they went a combined 7 for 14.
UCF also handed Pillsbury his first loss of the season dropping his record to 8-1.
The Knights will look to add to Bergman's total on Saturday, as the teams will square off in an afternoon doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m.
UCF Pounds Out A Win And Bergman Tops 1000
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