Sept. 17, 2009
ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFAthletics.com) - From the day he was hired on June 12, 2008, UCF head coach Terry Rooney and his staff had been working very hard to put together their first recruiting class. On Thursday, their efforts paid off as Collegiate Baseball released its annual recruiting results and the Knights were ranked No. 4 in the country, their highest in program history.
"We are extremely excited about our class being ranked No. 4 in the nation," said Rooney, who is embarking on his second season at UCF in 2010. "Our recruiting coordinator Cliff Godwin, assistant coach Jeff Palumbo and our entire support staff deserve an extreme amount of credit for this tremendous honor. We have been working diligently since our arrival last June on this class. It is my belief that this collection of players will be viewed upon in the coming years as the recruiting class that brought UCF back to the upper echelon of college baseball."
Members of the one of the top five baseball leagues in Division I, UCF led all Conference USA schools in the rankings. Its class consists of 21 players including 10 from the junior college ranks. Meanwhile, 18 are natives of the state of Florida, and six were previously selected in the MLB Draft.
Announced on Aug. 24, the Knights' class has a total of 11 pitchers, highlighted by four left-handers, set to toe the rubber when the Black and Gold opens fall drills Oct. 1.
To check out bios of all 21 student-athletes, click on 2010 UCF Recruiting Class.
Collegiate Baseball will have a full story on the top recruits in each of the top-10 classes in the Oct. 2, 2009, edition of its newspaper.
For the latest news on the Knights, log on to 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 UCFPhotos.com, the exclusive fan source for UCF action sports pictures.