April 3, 2005
DeLAND - Sophomore right fielder Matt Horwath went 2-for-4 with a solo home run and four runs scored to lead No. 18 UCF to a 14-7 victory over Stetson Sunday evening at Melching Field. After losing the first game of the series, UCF ripped off 32 runs over the final two games to win the series two games to one.
With the win, the Golden Knights moved to 27-7 overall and 9-3 in the A-Sun while the host Hatters fell to 17-13 and 6-6 in league play.
"It's always nice to get two wins on the road vs. a good offensive team like Stetson," stated UCF head coach Jay Bergman. "We matched up well against them and Newlin and Rodriguez gave us what we needed."
For the fourth straight game, Horwath hit a home run as the Golden Knights jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first. The home run was the seventh of the series for UCF.
UCF jumped on the Hatters in the second with five runs to take a 6-0 lead. Kevin Richmond started the big inning with a RBI-double and later scored on a wild pitch. Dee Brown and John-Michael Howell added RBI-singles as UCF stole five bases in the inning.
Stetson got three runs back in the third on a RBI-double off the bat of Braedyn Pruitt and a sacrifice fly by Chris Johnson to close the gap to 6-2. After an error by third baseman Marshall Bernhard, Stetson scored an unearned run when David Golliner singled to right to cut the deficit to 6-3.
The Golden Knights answered with another five-run inning in the fourth to pull ahead 11-3. UCF sent 11 batters to the plate in the frame as Drew Butera came through with a two-run single in the inning while Bernhard added a RBI-double and Howell sliced a RBI-single to left in the five-run inning.
UCF continued its scoring trend vs. Stetson, scoring twp runs in the fifth to pad the lead to 13-3. Over the last 11 innings against the Hatters, UCF has scored in 10 of the innings.
The offensive fireworks continued with a three-spot by Stetson in the home half of the fifth to bring the score to 13-6.
The Golden Knights added a run in the sixth to and Jon Still hit a solo home run in the ninth for Stetson to close out the scoring, 14-7.
Darren Newlin (6-1) pitched 5.0 innings for the win. Stetson starter Cy McCuen (2-1) lasted just 1.1 innings and was tagged with the loss. Ray Rodriguez pitched 4.0 innings for his first career save.
Every starter for the Golden Knights had at least one hit while seven UCF players drove in at least one run and eight Golden Knights scored in the win.
"You can't say enough about the offense," added Bergman. "We stole a lot of bases, got runners on and kept people moving all night long."
UCF returns to action Tuesday at USF at 7 p.m. Live radio coverage begins at 6:45 p.m. on the UCF ISP Sports Network (740-AM The Team) with the voice of the Golden Knights, Marc Daniels.
Game Notes: UCF leads the all-time series 59-43 ... Sunday's game was the final A-Sun regular season game between the two rivals ... UCF leaves the A-Sun for Conference USA in the fall of 2005 ... UCF is 19-2 when scoring first in 2005.