TALLAHASSEE – UCF’s bid for three wins in one day came to an end with a 19-3 loss to top-seeded Florida State Sunday in the NCAA Regional Championship game at Dick Howser Stadium in Tallahassee. The 20th-ranked Golden Knights defeated 24th-ranked Oklahoma State 12-9 in 10 innings Sunday morning just after midnight and beat the 16th-ranked Seminoles 7-5 Sunday afternoon before the Seminoles prevailed in the seventh and final game of the regional.
UCF came within one win for the third time in school history of the NCAA Super Regionals. The Golden Knights ended the season with a 47-18 record, including the fourth highest win total in UCF single-season history.
Stephen Drew welcomed Brett Bordwine into his first career start with his 16th home run of the season to right field in the top of the first to give FSU a 1-0 lead. Matt Sauls added to the FSU lead with two outs with a RBI single to center to give the Seminoles a 2-0 advantage.
Shane Robinson hit his first career homer in the second to extend the FSU lead to 3-0. Eddy Martinez-Esteve added a sacrifice fly to give the Seminoles a 4-0 lead after two innings of play.
UCF chipped away at the lead in the third as Matt Ray singled up the middle with two outs to score Drew Butera, cutting the deficit to 4-1. Ryan Bono added a two-out single to score Ray, slicing the lead to 4-2.
FSU ripped the game open with a five-run fourth to take a 9-2 lead. Bryan Zech started the big inning with a solo homer to left center as the Seminoles recorded six hits in the frame.
The Seminoles added 10 runs over the next three innings while Matt LaFleur blasted his third home run of the season to close out the scoring at 19-3.
All-Tournament Team Note: Five UCF players were named to the NCAA Tallahassee All-Regional Team. Drew Butera, Marshall Bernhard, Dee Brown, Matt Fox and Kevin Richmond were all named to the all-tournament team.
Game Notes: UCF dropped to 4-19 all-time vs. Florida State and 13-18 in NCAA Regional play … UCF has just two seniors on its roster as the Golden Knights look to the 2005 campaign, their final season in the Atlantic Sun Conference … UCF joins Conference USA in the fall of 2005 for all sports … Dee Brown ended the year with 68 RBI, seventh in UCF single-season history … Brown has 158 career RBI, fifth in school history … Brown also has 224 career hits, seventh in school history … Clay Timpner ended the year with 96 hits, tied for fourth in single-season history … Timpner’s 20 doubles in 2004 are tied for ninth in single-season history … Timpner’s 69 runs are tied for fourth in the UCF single-season annals … Timpner’s 146 total bases in 2004 rank seventh in single-season history … Timpner’s 347 total bases are seventh in school history.
UCF Post-Game Quotes
UCF Head Coach Jay Bergman
"First of all, I want to congratulate the baseball team of Florida State for a championship very well deserved. I want to thank the people at Florida State for everything they did. We had lightning, rain and everything else and got the games in and other than that, I just wanted to say how proud I was of our baseball team. Playing three games within 24 hours and playing until 1:00 in the morning we played a great game but we just ran out of pitching. That was all there was to it. We've enjoyed our stay here this year. Hopefully we'll be back next year."
"In our conference, our conference coaches picked us to be third in the conference. We won the regular season by five or six games in the loss column. With the team came back from a 31-26 disappointing year last year, they had everybody come back and commit themselves to becoming better, not only in the conference but in postseason play as well and to get three wins here and to have beaten Florida State, that's how important it is to stay out of the loser's bracket in these tournaments. But, extremely proud of them and what they've been able to do and the university that they represent. It was a pretty dadgum good year for us and I'm proud."
UCF LF Dee Brown
On strong hitting performance:
"Well, coming into the tournament, I wasn't trying to do anything special, I was just trying to do anything it took to help the team and I got good pitches to hit and I hit them. Other than that, I didn't do anything special or out of the ordinary."
On home run:
"It basically drifted out. I didn't think it was going out at first, but the wind just kept pushing it out."
UCF CF Clay Timpner
On first win today:
"Everybody was pumped up and still ready to win. We worked hard in the offseason and we weren't ready to let down. We just wanted to keep battling, just trying to survive. We wanted to win."
#20 UCF Falls To #16 Florida St. In Regional Championship
Share