DeLAND – Dee Brown finished 3-for-5 with four RBI to power No. 20 UCF past Gardner-Webb 10-7 to eliminate the Bulldogs from the 2004 Atlantic Sun Championship. With the win, UCF improved to 44-14 overall and will meet the winner of Stetson-Florida Atlantic Friday morning at 11 a.m. at Melching Field in DeLand.
The Golden Knights won their seventh straight A-Sun Tournament game and improved to 17-1 all-time when Stetson hosts the A-Sun Tournament.
Matt Fox (13-2) became just the third Golden Knight in school history to reach the 13-win plateau with 6.0 innings for the victory. The junior right-hander allowed three runs on six hits with seven strikeouts.
Only Justin Pope (15) and Jason Arnold (14) have won more games in a season than Fox. Both Arnold and Pope won a combined 29 games during the 2001 campaign.
Clay Timpner started the game with a double and later scored as Brown drove him in with a fielder’s choice. Brown later came home on a RBI-single off the bat of Ryan Bono to give the Golden Knights a 2-0 lead.
Brown came through again for the Golden Knights in the second as he delivered a bases clearing, two-out double to increase the UCF lead to 5-0.
Gardner-Webb jumped right back into the game in the sixth as Billy McCarson hit a three-run home run to cut the deficit to 5-3.
UCF stopped Gardner-Webb’s momentum with four runs in the seventh to extend the lead to 9-3. Marshall Bernhard walked with the bases loaded as a pinch hitter for UCF’s first run of the inning before Chandler Rose drove in a pair with a single down the left field line. Drew Butera continued the big inning with a single through the left side to give UCF a 9-3 advantage.
The Bulldogs got three runs back in the home half of the seventh as Ryan Quirello doubled in a run and McCarson followed with a RBI-double of his own to close the gap to 9-6. Matt Bridges continued the Bulldog scoring with a single up the middle to bring GWU to within three at 9-6.
Gardner-Webb scored again the eighth to close the lead to 9-7 before Jay Bergman called for Kyle Bono to enter the game from the bullpen.
Bono, who was UCF’s closer all of last season, has moved into the starting rotation in 2004 and was 8-1 with a 1.83 ERA in 14 starts.
Bono reverted back to his closer form of 2003, as he entered the game with runners on first and third and got an inning-ending double play to end the GWU threat.
The Golden Knights added an insurance run in the ninth as pinch hitter David Mann led off the inning with a triple and later scored to close out the scoring at 10-7.
Bono worked a scoreless ninth despite getting hit by a line drive off his right elbow. Bono recorded the final five outs of the game for his second save of the season.
Five Golden Knights recorded multi-hit games including Brown (3-for-5, 4 RBI, 2 runs), Timpner (2-for-5, 2 runs), Ray (2-for-5, 2 runs), Rose (2-for-4, 3 RBI) and Butera (3-for-3, RBI).
UCF returns to action Friday at 11 a.m. The game will air live on the Internet only through the Yahoo! Sports Audio Package.
Game Notes: UCF improved to 5-2 all-time vs. Gardner-Webb including a perfect 4-0 mark in 2004 … Dee Brown moved into sixth place in UCF history with 151 career RBI … Clay Timpner is tied for eighth in school history with 87 hits in 2004 … Timpner is also tied for seventh in single-season history with 64 runs scored … Timpner is eighth in career history with 147 runs scored … UCF is 21-2 when its starter works 6+ innings … UCF is 35-6 when scoring first … UCF won its first game of the season (1-0) when it played on a Thursday … Bono recorded his fourth save to place him in a tie for ninth in UCF career history.
#20 Baseball Eliminates Gardner-Webb From A-Sun Championship
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