DELAND – UCF starter Taylor Cobb earned his first career victory to help guide the Golden Knights to a convincing 13-6 victory over Stetson Friday afternoon at the Atlantic Sun Baseball Championship. Cobb fanned four and allowed just two earned runs to improve to 1-2 on the year.
The victory sends UCF to the championship game of the tournament on Saturday at 1 p.m. and the game can be heard live on 740 AM The Team. The win was also the ninth straight for the Golden Knights, their longest winning streak of the season. With the victory, UCF improved to 39-20 while Stetson dropped to 42-16.
The Knights totaled 18 hits on the day as Mike Myers finished 4-for-5 with three doubles and four runs scored. The three doubles and four runs for Myers tied an Atlantic Sun tournament and Melching Field record while the four hits tied a UCF tournament record.
In the top of the first, Stetson’s first three batters reached base as Josh Laws doubled and Chris Westervelt walked to setup Brian Snyder. Snyder came through with a RBI double to score Laws and give the Hatters a 1-0 lead. Taylor Cobb rebounded after the rocky start to strikeout the side to get out of trouble.
The Golden Knights rocked Stetson starter Jack Collins in the second inning and forced him out of the game as UCF sent 10 batters to the plate. UCF collected six runs in the frame on six hits to take a 6-1 lead after two innings of play.
Ty Hanson got the inning started when he reached on a fielding error by Stetson first baseman Bryan Zenchyk. After Hanson stole second, Rich Wallace singled through the left side to put runners on the corners. Adam Miller followed with another single through the left side to tie the contest at one. A two-strike bunt by Jeremy Frost loaded bases and David Mann came through with a two-run single to give the Knights a 3-1 lead. A RBI double by Mike Myers along with a RBI groundout by Dee Brown and a RBI double by Clay Timpner added to the UCF lead, making the score 6-1.
The Hatters got one run back in the third when Chris Westervelt tallied his 16th home run of the season over the fence in left field.
Stetson continued to chip away at the lead in the fourth as Rusty Beale drove in a run with a fielder’s choice to make the score 6-3.
In the UCF fourth, the Knights put another two runs on the scoreboard to increase the lead to 8-3. Mike Myers drilled his second RBI double of the game to the gap in right center and Dee Brown singled through the left side for his second RBI of the contest for the Knights’ pair of runs.
In the fifth, the Knights scored four more runs to extend the lead to 12-3. Rich Wallace scored on a wild pitch and pinch hitter Wayne Summers stroked a RBI single to right center to score Jeremy Frost. Summers entered the game after David Mann pulled a hamstring hustling down the line in the fourth inning. Later in the inning, Clay Timpner singled through the left side with the bases loaded to give UCF its largest lead of the game at 12-3.
The Hatters added one run in the seventh and two in the ninth while the Knights tallied one run in the home half of the seventh to close out the scoring at 13-6.
