ORLANDO, Fla.- The No. 1 seeded UCF Golden Knights (36-20, 23-7) enter this week’s Atlantic Sun Baseball Championship as the regular season champions in the conference for the second consecutive season. Last year, the Golden Knights won both the regular season and conference tournament championships and will look to repeat those accomplishments this week (May 22-25) at Melching Field at Conrad Park.
The first team that UCF will face is the No. 6 seed Samford Bulldogs. The UCF-Samford game is the first contest on the slate Wednesday at 11 a.m. Samford swept a three-game series from Belmont to earn the sixth seed. FAU enters the tournament as the No. 2 seed while host Stetson is seeded third followed by No. 4 Troy State and No. 5 Jacksonville.
As the No. 1 seed, UCF enters the tournament as the hottest team in the A-Sun. In its last 10 games, UCF is 8-2, the best record of any A-Sun team over its last 10 contests.
Head Coach Jay Bergman
UCF head coach Jay Bergman is in his 26th NCAA season and his 20th as coach of the Golden Knights. Bergman won his 1,000th game of his outstanding career in UCF’s 14-9 win over Florida Atlantic on May 3. Bergman is the 25th coach in NCAA history to reach 1,000 victories. In addition, Bergman is the first coach in the Atlantic Sun to claim five conference titles to add to his seven regional appearances. Last season, Bergman won a career-best 51 Division I games and was honored as Atlantic Sun Coach-of-the-Year.
UCF At The A-Sun Baseball Championship
UCF has won five Atlantic Sun Championships including last season’s conference crown. Even more impressive, every time the conference tournament has been held at Stetson, the Golden Knights have walked away with the title. UCF won the championship when Stetson hosted the tournament in 1997, 1996 and 1993. The only two times UCF won the conference championship when it was not held at Stetson was in 2001 and 1995. Overall, UCF is 11-1 all-time in conference tournament action held at Stetson.
Slow Start, Fast Finish
It seems like UCF’s 1-6 start to the 2002 season was a lifetime ago after the way the Knights have been playing of late. After 15 games, UCF was 5-10 but since then the Golden Knights have rolled to an impressive 31-10 record. Winners of six straight games and 11 of its last 14 contests, UCF is playing its best baseball of the season at the most important part of the year.
Closing In On The 40-Win Plateau
With UCF’s 36 victories, another 40-win season is in reach with the A-Sun tournament and a possible NCAA Baseball Championship invitation on the horizon. The Knights have won at least 40 games 12 times in its history including five out of the last six seasons. The only year UCF did not win 40 games over the last six years was in 1999 when UCF finished 38-21.
You Can Book This One To UCF
The Golden Knights are 8-0 as a team when Bo Hall starts on the mound. Wins have come against Bethune-Cookman twice, Campbell, Belmont, South Florida, Florida Atlantic Mercer and Georgia State.
In his last start vs. Mercer, Hall held the Bears three earned runs over 5.2 innings and totaled nine strikeouts.
King Of The Hill
Mark Michael has reached unfamiliar territory as far as innings pitched is concerned. While at Kentucky, he had never thrown more than 64 innings in a season. This year, Michael has tossed 83.2, tops on the team. He also leads UCF with 86 strikeouts to go along with his 7-3 record and 3.98 ERA.
Brown The A-Sun’s Top Hitter
For the second straight season, a Golden Knight has is leading the A-Sun in batting as freshman Dee Brown finished the regular season as the conference’s top batter with a .413 average. In 2001, Jeremy Kurella led the conference with a .401 average.
Currently second in batting average is UCF’s David Mann and Stetson’s Bryan Zenchyk at .407. It marked the second straight year also that UCF has had two players 1-2 in batting average as Andy Johnson was second in 2001 with a .389 mark.
If Brown and Mann both finish over .400, it will mark the first time in A-Sun history that a school has had two players bat over .400 in a season.
Dee Doing It All For UCF
Dee Brown has had quite a freshman campaign for UCF. The freshman All-America and A-Sun Freshman of the Year candidate leads the Golden Knights with a .413 batting average, which also places him third on the all-time single-season charts at UCF. Tim Foskett holds the single-season record with a .444 average set in 1983.
In addition to leading UCF in batting, Brown is also tops on the club in hits (76), doubles (12), RBIs (50) and total bases (101).
Mann On A Mission
Sophomore David Mann has not been a disappointment in his first season with the Gold and Black. The Lake City CC transfer is second on the team with a .407 average, which also places fourth in single-season history at UCF. If Mann finishes batting over .400, he would become just the fifth player in UCF history to hit .400 in a season. If Dee Brown also finishes above .400, the tandem would become the first duo in UCF history to hit .400 in the same year.
Sutton Continues To Rack Up The Saves
Senior Zach Sutton continues to be one of the elite closers in the Atlantic Sun Conference after adding another two saves to his total over the weekend vs. Mercer. Sutton leads UCF with seven saves, which is also good for third in the conference. The seven saves also place Sutton in a tie for fifth-place on the single-season save list at UCF. For his career, Sutton has 13 saves, third-most in UCF history.
Stellar Stertzbach
Von David Stertzbach has put together quite a season out of the UCF bullpen. Stertzbach is a perfect 7-0 including a minuscule 1.48 ERA. Last weekend vs. Mercer, Stertzbach picked up a win and a save over the Bears. In 54.2 innings, Stertzbach has allowed just nine earned runs while totaling 67 strikeouts.
Wear It
Rich Wallace has had his fair share of getting plunked by a pitch this season. Wallace leads the Knights with 15 HBP, which is second in single-season history at UCF. Wallace holds the single-season record after getting hit 16 times in 2001.Wallace is UCF’s all-time leader in getting hit by a pitch with 34 for his career.
You Can Put It On The Board
Senior Jeremy Frost had quite a game in his final appearance at Jay Bergman Field on Saturday vs. Mercer. Frost drilled two home runs, his second two-home run game of the season, to help lead UCF to the 6-5 win and the Atlantic Sun regular season championship. Frost leads UCF in 2002 with eight home runs and he has 32 for his career, fifth best in UCF history.
Myers Continues To Cross Home Plate
Mike Myers has been a terror on the bases throughout his three-year career. Myers leads the team with 48 runs scored in 2002 and is third in career runs scored with 173 at UCF. The 173rd time Myers scored for the Golden Knights was a special one, as it was the game-winner over Mercer on Saturday.
Baseball America Cites Timpner
Clay Timpner was named to Baseball America's College Midseason Freshman Team on April 11th. Selection of the teams and awards was conducted by Baseball America Editor Allan Simpson and senior writer John Manuel in discussions with coaches and scouts.
Statistics as of April 7th were used to determine the teams. Timpner was batting .398 with four home runs and 23 RBI's at the time, earning him one of the three outfield spots on the team.
Pitching The Key For UCF
As with any baseball team, the key to winning is strong pitching and UCF has just that. UCF leads the A-Sun and is ranked 18th in the country with a team ERA of 3.79. In 453 innings pitched this season, UCF has totaled 443 strikeouts and opponents are batting just .255 vs. the Knights.
UCF On The A-Sun All-Tournament Team
After winning last season’s conference championship, UCF had an amazing eight players on the 12-player all-tournament team. Von David Stertzbach, Burt Clark and Mike Myers all return for another chance to earn a spot on the all-tournament team.
Ticket Information For The A-Sun Tournament
For ticket prices and all other information regarding the 2002 Atlantic Sun Baseball Championship, visit www.atlanticsun.org and click on the baseball section.