Oct. 5, 2008
ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFAthletics.com) - On a crisp night in Orlando, the UCF baseball team officially kicked off week three of the fall season with its Sunday practice and intrasquad scrimmage. Black defeated Gold, 9-4, in a six-inning affair that saw every member of the Black side record at least one hit and one run.
The Knights are in the middle of a fall campaign that culminates in the Black & Gold World Series Oct. 21-23 at Jay Bergman Field. Each game begins at 8:30 a.m. and admission is free to the public.
Following an opening meeting with head coach Terry Rooney Sunday, assistant coach Jeff Palumbo practiced proper footwork with the infielders while fellow assistant Cliff Godwin worked with Beau Taylor and Shane Brown behind the plate on their throws to second and pitches in the dirt. Rooney traveled to right field to assist the pitchers in flat-ground drills, and a group of five outfielders took time to practice caroms of the fence in left-center.
Batting practice was next up on the agenda, while senior righty Jaager Good and junior righty Austin Hudson warmed up for the upcoming six-inning scrimmage. When the intrasquad got underway, Hudson started for the Black team and gave up an unearned run in the top of the first. However during that inning, senior Kiko Vazquez made a sensational play at third base, robbing junior Shane Brown of a base hit by diving to his left to snag a hard grounder, popping up and firing to first for the out.
Black quickly tied it up in the bottom half against Good. Freshman Austin Smith got it going by stretching a single to right into a double, went to third on a base hit by senior Eric Kallstrom and touched home on a deep sacrifice fly to left off the bat of Vazquez. They returned to the dish in the bottom of the second and proceeded to load the bases with one out for Vazquez. On a 2-0 fastball, the third baseman delivered another sac fly to left to permit senior Nick Choto to score. Black brought in two more on RBI singles from junior Chris Duffy and sophomore Stephen Branca.
Though trailing 4-1, Gold bounced back for two runs in the third, all started by a leadoff single from senior Colin Arnold. A wild pitch moved him to second and he eventually touched third on a base hit to right by Brown. Freshman D.J. Hicks helped Arnold complete the trip around the bases on a RBI base hit of his own. Hicks also scored in the inning on a throwing error. Later on, two more unearned runs in the game permitted Black to stretch its lead to 6-3 in the bottom of the fourth.
In its last chance to tie it up vs. reliever Matt Goodyear, junior Kyle Mills earned a leadoff walk and got into scoring position on an Arnold sac bunt. Two batters later, Brown made it 6-4 on a single to center with two outs, but that was all Gold could muster. The coaching staff decided to let Gold reliever Evan Stobbs close out the game even though Black had a two-run lead. He was greeted with back-to-back triples from Kallstrom and Vazquez, with Vazquez ultimately scoring on a wild pitch. Freshman Beau Taylor completed the scoring by sending a two-out, 2-1 offering over the right-field fence for a solo dinger.
Arnold and Brown both led Gold with two hits apiece, but its defense committed three errors. Over for Black, which had two miscues, Kallstrom went 3-for-4 with a triple and two runs. Smith (2-for-3), Branca (2-for-5) and Taylor (2-for-4) also had multiple-hit outings, while Vazquez drove in three to pace the offense (full game stats below).
Opening Day 2009 is slated for Feb. 20 vs. Virginia Commonwealth at Jay Bergman Field. Ticket information and the full season schedule will be announced at a later date.
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.
UCF Gold Statistics
CF Colin Arnold - 2-3, 3B, R, SAC
2B Josh Siebenaler - 1-4, R
C Shane Brown - 2-3, BB, RBI
1B D.J. Hicks - 1-4, RBI, R
RF B.J. Zimmerman - 1-2, HBP
3B Jake Huxtable - 0-3
DH/P Evan Stobbs - 0-1
LF Chadd Hartman - 0-2
SS Kyle Mills - 0-2, BB, R
SP Jaager Good - 3.0 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 0 BB, 2 K
RP Evan Stobbs - 3.0 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 2 K
UCF Black Statistics
CF Austin Smith - 2-3, 2B, 2 R, SB
SS Eric Kallstrom - 3-4, 3B, HBP, 2 R
3B Kiko Vazquez - 1-3, 3B, 3 RBI, R, 2 SF
LF Chris Duffy - 1-5, RBI, R
2B Stephen Branca - 2-5, RBI, R, SB
C Beau Taylor - 2-4, HR, 2 RBI, R
1B Nick Choto - 1-4, 2B, R, SAC
(Chadd Hartman played in right field while batting for Gold)
SP - Austin Hudson - 3.0 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 K
RP - Matt Goodyear - 3.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 2 K