May 6, 2005
TROY, Ala. - Dee Brown and Tyson Auer each hit two home runs as visiting UCF tied a school record with seven home runs in a 19-8 victory at Troy Friday night. Auer finished 2-for-4 with a career-high five RBI, including a two-run home run and a three-run blast for the victors. Brown recorded a career-high five hits, including his third grand slam of the season along with equaling a career-best with six RBI.
Brown moved into a tie for third place in UCF history in career hits (280) as the Golden Knights moved to within one game of the first-place Trojans in the Atlantic Sun conference. Brown also settled into a tie for third place in A-Sun history in career RBI with 212 and into seventh place in Atlantic Sun history in career hits (280). The senior left fielder also tied for ninth in UCF career history with 21 home runs.
UCF tied a 26-year-old school record with seven home runs. The Golden Knights also hit seven long balls vs. Florida Memorial in 1979.
Junior right-hander Mike Billek was solid out of the bullpen in his first relief appearance of the season. Billek (4-2) allowed just two runs on seven hits with nine strikeouts in 7.0 innings of work to earn the win.
The Golden Knights (37-11, 16-6) jumped all over Troy (29-16, 17-5) starter Landon Brazell in the first inning as UCF sent 10 batters to the plate and scored seven runs on six hits. Ryan Bono and Tyson Auer each launched two-run homers in the inning.
UCF has started well all season long, outscoring the opposition 45-14 in the first inning in 2005.
Troy got four runs on one swing in the home half of the inning on a grand slam by Brian Bennett.
The home run barrage by the Golden Knights continued in the second as Matt Horwath hit his eighth home run of the season to left center field to start the inning. Marshall Bernhard added his second sacrifice fly of the night to give UCF a 9-4 lead.
Troy came right back with four runs over the third and fourth innings to close the gap to 9-8.
After two scoreless innings, UCF added to its lead in the seventh with four runs. Drew Butera singled through the right side to score Bernhard, giving the Golden Knights a 10-8 lead. With two outs in the inning, Auer had the big hit for the Golden Knights with a three-run home run down the line in left to give the Golden Knights a five-run cushion at 13-8.
Back-to-back home runs by Brown and John-Michael Howell in the eighth and a grand slam by Brown in the ninth closed out the scoring. The grand slam was UCF's seventh home run of the game to tie a school record.
Game Notes: Dee Brown broke out of a 3-for-26 slump with a 5-for-6 performance vs. the Trojans ... Brown moved into a tie for third place in UCF history in career hits (280) and at-bats (817) ... Brown passed Dustin Brisson (276) in career hits and in at-bats (813) ... UCF improved to 18-0 when scoring in the first inning in 2005 ... the Golden Knights have outscoring the opposition 45-14 in the first in 2005 ... the two home runs marked the first multi-home run game of Tyson Auer's career ... UCF is 7-3 all-time at Troy ... the home run for Howell moved him into a tie for eighth place in UCF single-season home runs with 13 ... UCF has hit five grand slams in 2005 after not hitting any from 2002-04.