TALLAHASSEE – Matt Fox won his 14th game of the season to lead No. 20 UCF past No. 24 Oklahoma State 7-3 in the 2004 NCAA Baseball Championship at Dick Howser Stadium in Tallahassee Friday. Fox struck out six and did not allow an earned run in 7.2 innings to lead the Golden Knights to the victory. With the win, the third-seeded Golden Knights improved to 45-16 while the second-seeded Cowboys dropped to 37-23.
Fox (14-2) is tied with Jason Arnold (2001) for second place in UCF single-season history with his 14th win of the year. The Coral Springs native yielded eight hits, three unearned runs and did not walk a batter en route to the victory.
Florida State transfer Kevin Richmond provided the punch for the UCF lineup with a 3-for-4 contest including a career-high four RBI. The Golden Knights totaled 14 hits in the win.
UCF scored first with one run in the second. Richmond started a two-out rally in the second inning with a double down the left field line and Drew Butera followed with a single up the middle to score Richmond. Butera has been red hot in postseason play for the Golden Knights, going 10-for-15 to start the postseason.
UCF started the sixth with a single by Matt Ray and a double off the bat of Dee Brown to put runners on second and third. After a groundout, Marshall Bernhard drilled a single to center, scoring two, to give the Golden Knights a 3-0 lead. The big inning continued with a two-run single by Richmond to give UCF a 5-0 advantage.
UCF added two runs in the eighth on a two-run home run by Richmond well over the fence in right field. The two-run home run increased the UCF lead to 7-0.
The Cowboys avoided the shutout with a RBI-double by Rusty Ryal in the eighth to close the gap to 7-1. The run was unearned as Chris Guiterrez reached base via catcher’s interference to start the inning. OSU continued to chip away at the UCF lead with a two-run home run by Jason Jaramillo with two outs to bring the Cowboys to within four at 7-3.
All three OSU runs in the eighth were unearned off Fox. Mike Billek came in to record the final four outs to preserve the UCF win.
Butera finished 2-for-4 with a RBI while Bernhard was 2-for-4 with two RBI to lead the victors.
The Golden Knights face the winner of Florida State-Bethune-Cookman Saturday at 3 p.m. in Tallahassee. The game will air live on the UCF ISP Sports Network (740-AM The Team).
UCF Post-Game Quotes
UCF Head Coach Jay Bergman
"I'm very proud of our players today. I think we did the things we had to do to win the ball game. We had timely hits, we had outstanding pitching and when you play really well, that's exactly what happens. I'm really proud of our offense."
"(Pitcher) Matt Fox gave everything that he had even though he had cramps. He just went out there and hung with it and had enough on his fast ball to get us through the eighth inning and that's all we asked of him."
"The thing that you have to understand about this team is that they didn't even qualify for our conference tournament last year. So when you get into the position that they've put themselves into, you root really hard cause you want them to win because they've worked so hard to get to that point and that's the thing I am most proud of."
UCF Pitcher Matt Fox
"Most of my sliders were working and I was able to rely on my fastball. Early on I was able to get ahead of my hitters. I don't use my change-up much but I used it 10 times today and nine of them I got an out on."
UCF DH Kevin Richmond
(on being back in Tallahassee)
"It's great to return to the old town and get in front of the old crowd. It's great to come out of here with a win in the first game and move on past the first round."
"I just had a lot of energy to go out there and do well. I got a lot of good pitches to hit and I just took advantage of it. I didn't put any pressure on myself. I just went out there and had fun and played hard."
Game Notes: Matt Fox is tied with Jered Weaver of Long Beach State for the NCAA lead in wins with 14 ... UCF improved to 2-1 all-time vs. Oklahoma State and 11-16 all-time in NCAA play with the win … Matt Fox’s six strikeouts give him 125 for the season, tied for fourth in UCF single-season history … UCF is 39-4 when it out-hits the opponent … the Golden Knights are 22-4 when their starter works 6+ innings … the Golden Knights are 36-7 when scoring first … UCF is 14-2 vs. left-handed starters in 2004 … the Golden Knights improved to 5-7 vs. ranked teams.