DELAND – The UCF baseball team earned its second consecutive Atlantic Sun Baseball Championship with a comeback 8-6 win over Florida Atlantic Saturday afternoon at Melching Field in DeLand. The Golden Knights won their second consecutive conference crown and their sixth in school history after going a perfect 4-0 at the A-Sun Tournament. It also marked the fourth time UCF has won the championship at Stetson and the Knights improved to a remarkable 10-0 all-time at Melching Field.
With the win, UCF received an automatic bid into the 2002 NCAA Baseball Championship and finished with its 13th 40-win season in school history. UCF improved to 40-20 with the win while FAU dropped to 43-18.
Tournament MVP Mike Myers led the way again for the Knights as he finished 2-for-6 with three RBIs. It was the second straight year that a UCF player has won MVP honors. Myers finished the four games with six doubles and 11 RBIs.
After falling behind 4-0 after two innings of play, all-tournament pitcher Von David Stertzbach pitched 5.1 innings and allowed just one run on three hits with five strikeouts to keep UCF in the game.
Florida Atlantic grabbed an early 2-0 lead in the first inning as the Blue Wave registered two hits in the inning to score the two runs. L.J. Birernbaum gave FAU its first run of the contest with a RBI single through the right side to score Derek Hutton. Jeff Fiorentino added a sacrifice fly to give FAU a 2-0 lead.
The Blue Wave extended the lead to 4-0 in the second and knocked UCF starter Burt Clark from the game. Derek Hutton delivered with a sacrifice fly and L.J. Birernbaum drove in his second run in as many innings with a RBI single to give FAU the 4-0 advantage.
UCF got its first run of the contest in the third when Mike Myers doubled to score Ryan Bear and cut the FAU lead to 4-1.
FAU scored another run in the fifth on its third sacrifice fly of the game when Mike Cox drove in Bobby Spano to make the score 5-1.
The Knights tied the game in the sixth with four two-out runs. Jeremy Frost singled to center field to bring home Clay Timpner to get the rally started. Frost came through with the clutch two-out hit after fouling a ball off his foot during the at bat. The Knights continued the rally with a bases loaded walk by Jason Graham and a bases loaded two-RBI double by Myers to tie the contest at five.
The Knights almost took the lead in the seventh as Frost looked to hit a three-run home run, but he was robbed by FAU left fielder Jeff Fiorentino who caught the ball over the fence to steal the homer.
The game stayed tied until the ninth inning. Timpner led off the ninth with a single to left and Adam Miller hustled down the line for an infield single to set the stage for Wayne Summers. Summers came up with the most important hit for UCF in the tournament as he hit a chopper down the left field line to score Timpner for the go-ahead run. Frost followed with his second consecutive RBI single to score Miller to give the Knights a 7-5 advantage. Later in the frame, Summers scampered home on a passed ball to give UCF an 8-5 lead.
FAU made things interesting in the ninth as the Blue Wave loaded the bases with no outs, but UCF reliever Zach Sutton worked out of the jam and allowed just one run to clinch the A-Sun Championship.
Four members of the championship club were named to the all-tournament team. In addition to Myers and Stertzbach, Clay Timpner and Ty Hanson also earned all-tournament honors.
Atlantic Sun Conference 2002 Baseball Championship All-Tournament Team
Player School
Mike Myers UCF (MVP)
Clay Timpner UCF
Ty Hanson UCF
Von David Stertzbach UCF
Phil Nover Jacksonville
Andy Wilson Stetson
Robert Orton FAU
Mike Cox FAU
Danny Core FAU
Gabe Somarriba FAU