April 22, 2007
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Houston, Texas (www.ucfathletics.com) - Conference USA Preseason Player of the Year Joe Savery shut down the UCF offense Sunday in Houston, as No. 6 Rice used an 8-0 victory to sweep the three-game series over the Knights. UCF fell to 18-23 on the season and 1-11 in C-USA action due to the loss.
Savery (5-1) surrendered just one hit in 7.0 innings of work, striking out four to earn the win and help the conference-leading Owls improve to 33-11 on the year, 13-2 in league play.
UCF starter Eric English (1-2) had his longest outing in a collegiate uniform, going 5.1 innings vs. Rice Sunday. The sophomore's previous high was 4.2 innings vs. Monmouth earlier this season, and his longest stint during his freshman season at LSU in 2005 was 3.2 frames.
Meanwhile, the longest UCF hitting streak since 2004 came to a close when Tyson Auer had his 15-game string snapped. Kiko Vazquez had the Black and Gold's lone hit, a single in the second inning.
English retired the first four batters before walking Joe Savery on four pitches in the second. Diego Seastrunk gave the Owls runners at the corners on a base hit and Chad Lembeck provided Rice with the opening lead thanks to a sacrifice fly to left. The home team had runners at first and third with one down again in the third but could not add to its lead. English forced Tyler Henley to pop up on the infield and Brian Friday was tagged out by catcher Shane Brown on a double-steal attempt, keeping Rice's advantage at 1-0.
While it did not score in the third, Rice struck for three in the fourth. Jess Buenger got it started on a single and a one-out walk to Seastrunk put two aboard. Lembeck followed with a RBI base hit to left and two errors on the play permitted another run to cross home. J.P. Padron finished the inning with a double to plate Lembeck from third. Seastrunk pushed the Rice lead to 5-0 on a bloop two-out RBI single in the fifth.
Jared Gayhart, Henley and Buenger gave the Owls an 8-0 cushion with three-consecutive one-out RBI singles when the sixth rolled around. Brett Bordwine then came in from the pen and on two pitches, got the final two outs to leave runners at first and second.
After Savery left at the conclusion of the seventh inning, Bobby Bramhall and Scott Lonergan finished the victory by allowing just one baserunner (a walk in the eighth) in the final two stanzas.
UCF is set to embark on its longest remaining homestand (five games) when it hosts USF at Jay Bergman Field Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. For the latest news and information on the Golden Knights, tickets or apparel log on to www.ucfathletics.com - the official site for UCF athletics.
Game Notes
WP: Joe Savery (5-1), 7.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 4 K
LP: Eric English (1-2), 5.1 IP, 9 H, 7 R, 6 ER, 4 BB, 5 K
- The last time UCF was swept by a ranked opponent was at No. 10 Houston May 5-7, 2006.
- The Knights fell to 2-5 against ranked teams this season.
- Eric English completed his outing with 102 pitches, the most he's ever thrown either at LSU or at UCF.
- UCF grounded into three double plays for the second time in the series.
- Kiko Vazquez had not struck out in his eight previous games entering Sunday. However, Joe Savery got him swinging on a 3-2 pitch in the seventh inning. It was only Vazquez's 11th strikeout of the year.
- Brett Bordwine went 1.2 scoreless innings in his relief outing, not allowing a hit over that stretch. Justin Weiss came through in the eighth by not allowing a run in his only appearance of the weekend.