March 20, 2009
Notes for Saturday's Game in PDF Format
GREENVILLE, N.C. (UCFAthletics.com) - Conference USA play officially kicked off Friday night with the UCF baseball team suffering a 26-1 defeat at No. 23 East Carolina Friday at Clark-LeClair Stadium. The Knights' record dropped to 7-13 on the year while the Pirates improved to 14-4.
At the dish, junior Shane Brown extended his hitting streak to 12 games, while senior Colin Arnold collected two hits for the Black and Gold.
A one-out walk in the first inning sparked ECU's offense as it went on to take a 1-0 lead vs. senior Kyle Sweat on a two-out RBI single from Kyle Roller. The Pirates stretched it to 2-0 in the second thanks to a run-scoring single from Jared Avchen.
UCF looked finished in the top of the third, yet somehow still cut the ECU lead in half. Plunked by a pitched with one down, freshman Austin Smith eventually traveled to second on a groundout only to see classmate Jake Huxtable fall behind Chris Heston 0-2 after two swinging strikes. The freshman hung in and got a hold of the next pitch for a single into left, plating Smith from second base.
However, a double from Ryan Wood got the Pirates' half of the third started and they went on to score three runs before recording the first out. When the inning was all over, ECU held a 7-1 advantage.
The Knights attempted to rally in the fourth, putting the first two aboard on singles from seniors Brandon Romans and Kiko Vazquez. That was when Heston came through by striking out sophomore Evan Stobbs and senior Chadd Hartman before earning the third out on a pop up on the infield from senior Eric Kallstrom.
That was UCF's best chance at inching closer, as ECU scored six more in the bottom of the fourth and was on its way to the win.
Game two of the series gets underway Saturday at 3 p.m., while the finale is set for Sunday at 10:30 a.m. (changed from 11 a.m.).
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.
Game Notes
UCF - 7-13 Overall, 0-1 Conference USA
No. 23 East Carolina - 14-4 Overall, 1-0 Conference USA
WP: Chris Heston (3-0), 7.0 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K
LP: Kyle Sweat (2-2), 3.0 IP, 8 H, 11 R, 7 ER, 2 BB, 1 K
-Jake Huxtable and Evan Stobbs kept their hitting streaks alive at six games.