Oct. 17, 2008
ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFAthletics.com) - Assistant coaches Jeff Palumbo and Aaron Smith conducted their draft for the UCF baseball Black & Gold World Series and were pleased to announce their rosters Friday. The series begins Sunday with first pitch scheduled for 6:30 p.m. at Jay Bergman Field, while games two and three are Monday and Tuesday at 9 a.m. each day.
The event marks the conclusion of fall practices for the Knights as first-year head coach Terry Rooney and his staff is busy evaluating the Knights for the upcoming spring campaign. Admission to all three games is free. Fans looking to park for the event may do so in either Garage F adjacent to the field, or in lot E8 just north of Bright House Networks Stadium. For those who cannot make it out, UCFAthletics.com will feature live stats of all three games.
All three games will be five innings apiece. If the first two games are split, then the winner of the third game will be declared the champion. If one team wins the first two outings, the team that is 0-2 can still win the title by winning game three by an amount of runs that is greater than the sum of the run differential of the first two games.
Manager of the Black squad, Smith had the honor of selecting first in the draft and took freshman RHP/IF Anthony Figliolia (Winter Springs, Fla.). Meanwhile, he will go with junior righty Austin Hudson (Orlando, Fla.) to start on the hill in game one. Black features a roster that includes UCF's top four starting offensive players from a year ago in seniors Colin Arnold (Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.) and Eric Kallstrom (Southwest Ranches, Fla.) and juniors Shane Brown (Winter Park, Fla.) and Chris Duffy (Orlando, Fla.)
Over for the Gold side, Palumbo will send out senior right-hander Caleb Graham (Lutz, Fla.) to serve as his starting hurler. Gold has the majority of the pitchers who have starting experience with seniors Kyle Sweat (Apopka, Fla.), Jaager Good (Atlanta, Ga.) and Graham all on the roster.
In all, there are 13 seniors and six juniors suiting up for the Knights, with nine newcomers beginning their UCF careers. With the exception of Good, the entire roster is made up of Floridians including several from the Orlando area.
The Black and Gold is attempting to fill in some holes leftover from the 2008 squad. Center field Tyson Auer, right fielder Ryan Richardson, second baseman Dwayne Bailey and catcher Robert Lara all created gaps defensively for the Knights when they either exhausted their eligibility or signed professional contracts. On the mound, left-handed starters Mitch Houck and Mitch Herold were both drafted and went on to have productive summers in the minor leagues.
UCF, which is coming off a 31-27 performance in 2008, will host Virginia Commonwealth on Opening Day 2009 Feb. 20 at Jay Bergman Field. The full schedule and ticket information will be released in the coming weeks.
For the latest news on the Knights, log on to www.UCFAthletics.com - the official site for UCF varsity sports. The site, which also contains ticket and Golden Knights Club donor information, is also the home of UCF's new online apparel store. Also visit www.UCFPhotos.com, the exclusive fan source for UCF action sports pictures.