March 17, 2009
ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFAthletics.com) - Already off to his best season in three years with the Knights, UCF senior Brandon Romans (Cocoa, Fla.) was selected to the 2009 Coleman Company-Johnny Bench Award Watch List delivered by Papa John's Pizza. A total of 44 collegiate catchers were nominated, as the award is annually handed out to the top Division I catcher.
The watch list was released by the Greater Wichita Area Sports Commission, and it will be narrowed down to 10 semifinalists, whom will be announced May 14. A national voting panel at the end of May will vote to determine the three finalists, with a final vote among the national committee to occur during the College World Series. UCF has had two catchers serve as semifinalists: Drew Butera in 2005 and Ryan Bono in 2006.
Romans may have sat three games this year due to an injury, but that did not affect his performance on the field. The Cocoa native leads UCF (7-10) with a .425 average, five homers, 17 RBI, .900 slugging percentage and a 1.000 fielding percentage. His five dingers currently lead Conference USA while they also are a career-high.
In 40 at-bats, Romans has struck out just four times, and brings a career-long eight-game hitting streak into Tuesday's home game against Army at 6:30 p.m. The backstop is coming off a three-game stretch against Hartford and Northern Iowa in which he went 4-for-9 with seven RBI, four runs, two doubles and two homers.
Most recently, catcher Robert Lara also was named to the Watch List last season. Lara played one year with the Knights, going .312 at the plate in 2008 with 31 RBI and a .986 fielding percentage. He went on to be drafted by the San Diego Padres in the 19th round.
Baseball season and single game tickets are on sale now for the 2009 campaign. Call the UCF Ticket Office at (407) 823-1000 for more information. Fans may also visit UCFAthletics.com - the official site for UCF varsity sports. The site contains ticket and Golden Knights Club donor information, and is the home of UCF's online apparel store. Also visit UCFPhotos.com, the exclusive fan source for UCF action sports pictures.