April 9, 2010
| UCF at Southern Miss April 9, 2010 |
| From Hattiesburg, Miss. | |||||
| Team | R | H | E | ||
| UCF | 7 | 11 | 1 | ||
| Southern Miss | 3 | 8 | 3 | ||
WP: Johnny Sedlock (2-2), 6.0 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 K
LP: Todd McInnis (2-3), 5.0 IP, 7 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 5 BB, 8 K
SV: Joe Rogers (5), 3.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 4 K
Game-Changing Moment
Southern Miss was fighting late, including scoring three runs in the seventh. Eventually UCF held a 7-3 in the bottom of the eighth where the Golden Eagles loaded the bases with one out against Joe Rogers. A base hit, especially one of the extra-base variety, would have done a lot of damage, but following a meeting with head coach Terry Rooney, Rogers immediately got Travis Gravis to ground into an inning-ending 4-6-3 double play.
Three Stars
First Star: UCF LHP Johnny Sedlock, WP, 6.0 IP, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 K
Second Star: UCF 1B Chris Taladay, 2-for-5, 3-run HR put UC F on the board
Third Star: UCF RP Joe Rogers, SV, 3.0 shutout innings, 4 K
Honorary Star: Former Knight Drew Butera for making his Major League debut with the Twins Friday
By Brian Ormiston
UCFAthletics.com
HATTIESBURG, Miss. (UCFAthletics.com) - Junior lefty Johnny Sedlock limited Southern Miss to just one earned run and struck out five in 6.0 innings in UCF's 7-3 win at Southern Miss Friday. The Knights scored their first five runs with two outs, highlighted by three-run homer from Windermere's Chris Taladay and a two-run double from Rockledge's Beau Taylor, enabling them to improve their record to 20-12 on the season and 3-4 in Conference USA.
Sedlock tossed six-scoreless innings before USM (16-12, 1-3) got on the board in the seventh. The lefty struck out five and recorded nine groundball outs compared to four fly outs. And of the seven hits given up, five of them were on groundballs.
"In the first inning I went out there, and the actual mound is different from the bullpen in that it's taller and flatter. I was leaving the balls up in my warm-up pitches so I had to make an adjustment. I knew I had to get ahead and keep the ball down. I ended up finding a good rhythm and kept the ball down the whole night. And I used a combination of everything. Sometimes I got ahead with the curve and others I would use the changeup.
"For me personally, I've been waiting on this for quite awhile. But I have to tip my hat to all of my teammates because every single player on our team made a play behind me today. I have to give them a lot of credit."
Senior Shane Brown entered UCF's all-time top-10 in career hits Friday by going 2-for-5. That allowed him to take over 10th on the list, and he will need four more to move into the ninth spot with Chad Mottola. Meanwhile, he also recorded his 50th-career double, which gave him sole possession of fifth on the all-time chart.
Brown would lead off the game against Todd McInnis with a double to the right-center gap, yet he would be stranded at third. When USM dug in for the first time, Sedlock gave up two one-out groundball singles before striking out B.A. Vollmuth and inducing Mark Ellis to fly out to center to leave them aboard.
The USM righty then struggled in the third, and this time failed to escape. McInnis picked up two quick outs only to issue two walks to Chris Duffy and Ryan Breen. That brought up Taladay, who promptly smoked the first pitch he saw over the wall in right-center for his fifth home run of the year. It also was the second time in 2010 that he connected for a three-run homer.
Two innings later and there were more two-out RBI to be had. Thanks to leadoff singles by way of Luciano and Duffy, UCF quickly had two men aboard. They would later get into scoring position, setting up a first-pitch, two-out double by Taylor.
While the Knights were busy taking a 5-0 lead, Sedlock provided a definition of "settling things down." Following those two first-inning Golden Eagle hits, the UCF southpaw sat down 12 in a row until there was one out in the fifth.
But Southern Miss finally threatened in the seventh, loading them up on an infield single, fielding error and bloop hit to get it started. Travis Graves provided the Golden Eagles with their first runs on a two-RBI single, and even though Joe Rogers came in from the pen and struck out a pair, Taylor Walker drove in one more as Brown attempted to make a diving snag in right only to witness the ball trickle out of his glove.
UCF answered with the same situation in the eighth, filling the bags with no outs on a walk to Ronnie Richardson and groundball hits produced by Brown and Darnell Sweeney. Reliever Cody Schlagel would toss in a wild pitch to make it 6-3, and a sac fly off the bat of Breen pushed the advantage to four runs.
Rogers returned in the home half of the eighth and the Golden Eagles had another chance with the bases juiced. However the UCF freshmen forced Graves to ground into an inning-ending 4-6-3 double play, with Austin Johnston flipping it to Sweeney who made a 360-turn before firing it to first, where Taladay made a great scoop to keep his team ahead, 7-3.
That would be USM's last opportunity as Rogers secured his fifth save of 2010 by wrapping it up in the ninth.
Both teams will return to the field for game two Saturday at 4 p.m. ET.
Ticket plans for the 2010 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 also the home of UCF's new online apparel store. Also visit UCFPhotos.com and become a follower of the Knights on Twitter and Facebook.
Game Notes
UCF - 20-12 Overall, 3-4 Conference USA
Southern Miss - 16-12 Overall, 1-3 Conference USA
-Away from Hattiesburg, former Knight Drew Butera made his Major League debut with the Minnesota Twins Friday as they took on the White Sox in Chicago.
-UCF's starting lineup featured five freshmen, and nine batting averages of .294 or better.
-UCF posted seven hits against Southern Miss starting pitcher Todd McInnis, who entered Friday with a 2.42 ERA. That would be the second-most hits he had given up all season.
-With two more hits, Shane Brown has connected for at least two hits in 23 of UCF's 32 games this year.
-Beau Taylor led all Knights with three hits, and added two RBI.
-Freshman Joe Rogers finished his outing with 3.0 scoreless innings, surrendering one hit and striking out four.