April 7, 2010
By Brian Ormiston
UCFAthletics.com
Orlando, Fla. (UCFAthletics.com) - A trio of former UCF Knights is making waves throughout the Minnesota Twins organization this year. Drew Butera made the 25-man roster and will serve as the backup catcher to Joe Mauer, while Matt Fox and Mike Maroth will be pitching for the Triple-A Rochester Red Wings.
Butera has quickly climbed the ranks after his career ended at UCF in 2005. He started at low A ball with the New York Mets before moving on to Class A in 2006 as well as Class A Advanced in 2007. Butera would join the Twins organization that summer, graduating to Double-A for two seasons until playing all of 2009 with the Red Wings. Now in 2010, he is set to make is Major League debut.
Fox and Maroth, meanwhile, have battled injuries recently leading up to 2010's Spring Training. But last year Fox delivered for the Double-A New Britain Rock Cats, going 9-9 with a 3.58 ERA and 120 strikeouts in 151.0 innings. This will be his first stint at the Triple-A level.
A six-year veteran in the Majors, Maroth would begin to see a lot of the training room while with the Detroit Tigers in 2006 after opening the season 5-2 in his first seven starts. He pitched for the St. Louis Cardinals in 2007, then saw time with the Kansas City Royals' Triple-A affiliate the Omaha Royals in 2008. Maroth would suffer from more injury troubles from 2008-09 leading up to winter ball prior to the 2010 season.
After posting a 3-0 record and a 2.60 ERA in Puerto Rico, Maroth caught the attention of the Twins and was invited to spring camp, where he was 2-0 with two saves and a 3.48 ERA in seven appearances for the big-league club.
Several other UCF alumni are looking forward to the 2010 season as well. Among those Knights are Tyson Auer with the Class A Rancho Cucamonga Quakes (Angels), Robert Lara with the Class A Lake Elsinore Storm (Padres), Clay Timpner with the Double-A Richmond Flying Squirrels (Giants) and Mitch Herold with the Class A Salem Red Sox.
Check UCFAthletics.com continuously throughout the spring and summer for more updates on all of the Knights in the pros.
Ticket plans for the 2010 UCF campaign are currently on sale. To purchase tickets, call 407-823-1000 or visit UCFAthletics.com. And for the latest news on the Knights, log on to UCFAthletics.com - the official site for UCF varsity sports. The site, which also contains Golden Knights Club donor information, is the home of UCF's new online apparel store. Also visit UCFPhotos.com, the exclusive fan source for UCF action sports pictures, and become a follower of the Knights at Twitter.com.