April 9, 2008
ORLANDO, Fla. (www.ucfathletics.com) - Merritt Island native Mitch Herold fired UCF's first complete game since 2006 in a three-hit, 4-1 win over Stetson Wednesday at Jay Bergman Field. The southpaw set a career-high in innings pitched while matching a personal best with nine strikeouts to help the Knights' record move to 24-11.
"I was just on cruise control and throwing strikes," said Herold, who improved to 3-2 on the year. "From pitch one, I felt like I had the right arm slot and I could throw it as hard as I could and I knew right where it was going. I felt good the whole game."
Herold made just one mistake in the game against the Hatters (15-18), a solo homer by Jeremy Cruz in the seventh inning. He surrendered just two other hits in his outing, both singles, and walked only one which came in the ninth inning. Herold made 101 pitches to notch the win, and recorded 11-straight outs at one point.
"Stetson is a good hitting team, they always are, and they scored 16 runs last night (vs. Bethune-Cookman)," said pitching coach Craig Cozart. "But when Mitch is in the strike zone he is very effective. I think he is slowly but surely getting to the point where he has the confidence and has the ability in the middle of the game to make adjustments when he needs to."
Sophomore Chris Duffy delivered his fourth homer of the year in the victory, and junior Eric Kallstrom extended his hitting streak to 10-straight outings, his second streak of at least 10 games in the 2008 campaign.
Three quiet innings passed until UCF opened the scoring in the fourth. After Stetson starter Andy Mauldin tossed 2.2 frames and left in the third inning, reliever Jake Hitchcock came on and eventually faced Duffy in the fourth with one down. The designated hitter worked the count full before driving an outside pitch the opposite way and over the left-field wall for a 1-0 lead.
A one-out walk in the fifth to senior Dwayne Bailey paved the way for the Knights' second run, as junior Colin Arnold followed with a double to the left-center gap to plate UCF's second baseman.
Travis Stortz then stepped out of the pen for the sixth and promptly surrendered a two-strike double down the right-field line to Kallstrom. Two batters later, he touched home on a sharp single to left-center by junior Brandon Romans with the infield playing in. The Knights added an unearned run to close out the stanza up, 4-0.
Although Cruz ended Herold's bid for a shutout with a solo homer in the seventh, the UCF lefty was dominate the rest of the way. Herold got plenty of help from his defense, as third baseman Kyle Mills, shortstop Kallstrom and second baseman Bailey all made sensational plays in the infield to keep the Hatters off the bases late in the game. Senior center fielder Tyson Auer also had a highlight-reel play early on when he raced in to make a diving catch on a low liner in the first inning off the bat of Casey Frawley.
Conference USA play resumes this weekend when UCF hosts Memphis Friday-Sunday during UCF Athletics Hall of Fame Weekend. Game one's first pitch is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. at Jay Bergman Field.
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
Stetson - 15-18 Overall, 6-9 Atlantic Sun
UCF - 24-11 Overall, 2-7 Conference USA
WP: Mitch Herold (3-2), 9.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 9 K
LP: Jake Hitchcock (2-4), 2.1 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 2 K
- UCF was wearing gold batting helmets for the first time this season, but switched back to the black helmets to start the fourth inning, where Duffy put the Knights on the scoreboard with his homer to left.
- Robert Lara played first base for the first time since high school when he made the start there Wednesday, and proceeded to tally 12 putouts.
- Mitch Herold entered the seventh inning after throwing just 58 pitches.
- Herold now has 39 strikeouts on the season, which tied his career high as he had 39 Ks as a freshman in 2006.
- Herold's previous career-long outing was 7.0 innings which he had accomplished twice. Meanwhile, his nine strikeouts tied a career-high, as he struck out nine batters against Stetson last year in DeLand (May 8).
- UCF's last complete game was by Tim Bascom at home vs. East Carolina April 7, 2006.
- Tyson Auer's single in the sixth inning was his 200th career hit at UCF. He is now just 16 hits shy from entering the top-10 list in the school's career record books.
- The game time of 2:27 was UCF's shortest game of the season.
- Colin Arnold and Brandon Romans each had a pair of hits Wednesday.
- Dwayne Bailey stole his 17th base of the year in his 17th attempt.