March 6, 2005
ORLANDO - Redshirt junior pitcher Taylor Cobb made his first appearance on the mound for UCF since May of 2003 and was sensational in leading the Golden Knights to a 5-2 victory over Siena Sunday at Jay Bergman Field. Cobb, who missed all of 2004 with an arm injury, pitched 6.0 innings and threw just 59 pitches to earn his first win since April 29, 2003 in a relief appearance at Charleston Southern. The last time Cobb won a game he started was March 21, 2003 at Samford.
"What an unbelievable performance by Taylor," stated UCF head coach Jay Bergman. "Two things have to happen when a player returns from a season-ending injury - Taylor had a fantastic work ethic to come back and our trainer Eric Gunderson took this on a mission to get him well," added Bergman. "Coach Cozart also worked with Taylor to get him back on track and to throw 59 pitches in six innings is a heck of an outing."
"I just wanted to get back out there and throw strikes and let my defense play behind me," said Cobb. The UCF defense did its part in turning three double plays for the 6-6 right-hander from Jacksonville.
With the win, UCF closed out the week with a 4-1 record and improved to 15-3 on the season while Siena dropped to 2-6.
UCF took advantage of three Siena errors to score five unearned runs. In the second, Siena starter Trevor Reid committed back-to-back two-out errors to start the UCF rally. After Marshall Bernhard reached on an error, Drew Butera doubled down the left field lien to tie the game at one. Kevin Richmond followed with a run-scoring double to right and Courtney Propst drove in a run with a single to give the Golden Knights a 3-1 lead.
The 3-1 lead was enough for Cobb as he made the lead stand through six solid innings of work. UCF turned to sophomore left-hander Brian Brooks to close out the game. Brooks entered the game in the seventh and allowed one unearned run on three hits with three strikeouts for his first save of the season.
Cobb finished the game with five strikeouts and just one walk. He yielded just three hits in his first win of the season.
Siena got one run back in the seventh to close the gap to 3-2, but UCF pushed across two runs in the home half of the seventh to put the game away at 5-2.
Richmond scored on a balk in the seventh and Tyson Auer stole home on a double steal to close out the scoring.
UCF out-hit Siena 8-6 including two hits by Dee Brown, Drew Butera and Propst.
UCF returns to action Tuesday at Jay Bergman Field vs. St. Joseph's. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m.
Game Notes: UCF raised its record to 23-2 all-time vs. Siena ... the Golden Knights stole five bases on the day vs. Siena ... for the season, UCF has stolen 52 bags while its opponents only have eight stolen bases in 19 attempts ... Prior to Tyson Auer's steal of home, the last time a Golden Knight stole home was Kevin Richmond at Jacksonville last season (April 4, 2004) ... with the save, Brian Brooks became the fifth UCF player in 2005 to have at least one save.