March 25, 2008
Wednesday's Preview in PDF Format
ORLANDO, Fla. (www.ucfathletics.com) - North Florida used the middle innings to erase a 5-1 deficit Tuesday en route to handing the No. 19 UCF baseball team its first home loss of the season, 8-5. The Knights saw their record drop to 20-4 on the year and 18-1 in the confines of Jay Bergman Field.
The Knights' top two hitting streaks remained in tact against UNF (12-10), as junior Eric Kallstrom pushed his to 14 games and senior Ryan Richardson stretched his streak to 11.
UCF starter Caleb Graham was given a 3-0 lead after the first inning on RBI singles off the bats of junior Colin Arnold and Richardson, as well as a sacrifice fly from sophomore Shane Brown. Although UNF picked up a run in the top of the second, junior Brandon Romans cranked an 0-1 pitch off Antonio Franzese to right center for an RBI double in the home half, plating Kallstrom who led off the frame with a single.
Kallstrom extended the lead to 5-1 in the third by bringing in Brown on a groundout to short. The Ospreys were able to tally a run in the fourth and eventually loaded the bases with two outs. But Graham went inside on Chad Knight on a 2-2 pitch, forcing the shortstop to lazily ground out to second to leave them filled.
UNF's offense did return in the fifth and this time scored three more times to even it up at 5-5. The Ospreys did, however, leave runners at second and third with one out when senior Brian Griggs came in from the pen. The lefty struck out Ryan Lowe for the second out, then notched the third on a rare pop up to Romans behind the plate where an errant pitch from Griggs went behind TJ Thompson's head yet his bat. Romans looked up, found it in the air in foul territory and snagged it to close the inning.
With momentum still in the Ospreys' favor, they racked up another three runs in the sixth to bring their advantage to 8-5. As they were busy at the plate, reliever Tucker Pryor tossed 3.0 hitless innings until he allowed a leadoff single to Bailey in the seventh. That did not lead to any damage as UNF cruised the rest of the way. The Knights did put the tying run on first in the bottom of the ninth with one down only to see Osprey closer Tyler Stohr get the final two outs without surrendering a run.
UCF gets on the bus Wednesday afternoon to travel south to Ft. Myers to tangle with Florida Gulf Coast at 6 p.m.
Season tickets as well as single-game tickets to check out UCF baseball this year are currently available by contacting the UCF Ticket Office at 407-823-1000, or by going online at www.ucfathletics.com, the official site for UCF varsity sports. Also check out UCFPhotos.com, the exclusive fan source for UCF action sports pictures.
Game Notes
North Florida - 12-10 Overall, 5-7 Atlantic Sun
No. 19 UCF - 20-4 Overall, 1-2 Conference USA
WP: Tucker Pryor (3-1) 5.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 K
LP: Brian Griggs (1-1), 2.0 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 2 K
SV: Tyler Stohr (5), 0.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 K
- The Knights have now lost two games in a row for the first time in 2008.
- Tyson Auer and Eric Kallstrom each stole base Tuesday, giving UCF 57 on the season. It was Auer's 12th steal of the year, while it was the first for Kallstrom.
- UNF has now won its last five games against UCF in Orlando (one in 2008, three in 2006, one in 1991).
- Evan Stobbs hurled 3.0 shutout innings out of the pen, striking out three and not walking a batter.
- UCF had three errors in the game, the most miscues since committing six at Jacksonville March 5.
- In other news, the first NCAA nationwide statistics were released Tuesday and UCF was in the top 10 in many categories (based on statistics before Tuesday night's game). Mitch Houck ranked first in the country in strikeouts per nine innings with a 15.26 average, Ryan Richardson was seventh in sacrifice flies with four, Dwayne Bailey was seventh with 40 hits and Shane Brown was ninth with 10 hit by pitches. Brown sat just outside the top 10, placing 18th with 31 RBI, while Bailey was 16th with 13 stolen bases. As a team, the Knights were first in the nation with 55 stolen bases, 20 sacrifice flies and 11.0 strikeouts per nine innings.