Nov. 6, 2009
Black/Gray Team Stats in PDF Format
By Brian Ormiston
UCFAthletics.com
ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFAthletics.com) - UCF baseball's fall camp officially closed when Gold scored seven late runs to defeat Black, 9-2, in front of a fantastic crowd Friday night. With the victory, the Gold squad claimed the Black & Gold World Series title after winning games two and three of the event.
"I thought it was a great fall," said second-year head coach Terry Rooney. "We have 21 newcomers and 14 returning players, so obviously what the challenge was and what it will be for the remainder of the season is to put together the pieces of the puzzle. And that's coaching. From a coaching standpoint we have to evaluate every player individually, and then from a team standpoint we have to put guys in situations where they can be successful."
Gold collected 12 hits in the six-inning game, with Jake Huxtable racking up three doubles, while Chris Duffy and Shane Brown also had three hits. Black, which was wearing their gray uniforms, posted five total hits with Darnell Sweeney leading the way with a 2-for-3 performance and a stolen base.
A single from Brown opened up the top of the first for Gold against freshman Brian Adkins, who eventually loaded the bases with a pair of hit by pitches. That came back to haunt Adkins as Huxtable capitalized with a sacrifice fly.
However Black struck back the first time it dug in, tying it up on a two-out double by Sweeney, a wild pitch and an infield single from Chris Taladay.
After Adkins and Gold's Owen Dew kept both teams scoreless in the next two innings, Gold took a 2-1 lead in the fourth. With two away and Huxtable on second thanks to a double, Kevin Vasquez took the first pitch he saw and ripped it through the left side.
Just like the first inning, Black did not go away, evening it back up on a RBI double from Anthony Caronia, plating Alex Friedrich from second in the bottom of the fourth.
Unwilling to let Black grab momentum, another two-bagger from Huxtable set up a big inning for Gold in the fifth. Following a RBI single from Ryan Breen, a single from Brown and a wild pitch pushed two runners into scoring position, and Vasquez delivered a sac fly to right. Duffy then hammered a RBI double into the left-center gap, and Huxtable closed out the five-run frame with his second double of the inning, a two run line drive to right-center.
The extra-base machine rolled along for Gold in the sixth and final inning, getting a triple from Vasquez and a great two-strike swing by Duffy as he took a pitch the opposite way and into left-center for a double. The lead stretched to 9-2 on a two-out error, and Joe Rogers worked the final 1.2 innings of scoreless ball with three strikeouts on the mound to secure Gold's triumph.
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Game Notes
WP: Matt Manning, 1.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 0 K
LP: Chase Bradford, 1.2 IP, 6 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 2 BB, 3 K
Also Pitched for Black:
- Brian Adkins, 3.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 2 K
- J.M. Blake, 1.1 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 1 K
Also Pitched for Gold:
- Owen Dew, 3.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 2 K
- Gregg Cooke, 0.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 K
- Joe Rogers, 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 K
Defensive Only Players: Keith Simon played first base and Matt Manning played right field for Gold.
Defensive Only Players: Jordan Rasinski played left field for Black.