May 18, 2010
By Brian Ormiston
UCFAthletics.com
Orlando, Fla. (UCFAthletics.com) - In the top of the fourth, Mother Nature decided to show up, forcing UCF to cancel its game against Florida Atlantic Tuesday in Orlando. The Knights were trailing 4-3 when lightning, heavy rain and an eventual Tornado Warning came through the area. They will now prepare to close out the regular-season at Tulane Thursday-Saturday.
Junior Jonathan Griffin may have hurt the most from the weather, as he pounded out his 13th home run of the season, which would have moved him closer to cracking UCF's single-season top-10. It also would have been his sixth homer in his last eight games.
Instead, the Knights' 14-game non-conference regular-season winning streak remains intact and it will carry over into the 2011 season.
After starting pitcher Brennan Dobbins cruised through the first inning with a pair of strikeouts, the Owls put two men aboard with one out in the second thanks to very soft bloop singles into the outfield. However the right-hander escaped on a fielder's choice and struck out Chase Vergason to leave both runners on base.
With FAU off the board, Ronnie Richardson hoped to begin a scoring threat in the bottom of the second on a one-out single. Two batters later and he put on his jogging shoes when Griffin ripped a two-run homer over the wall in left. But just as quickly as the Knights scored their two runs, an error in the top of the third permitted the Owls to plate four unearned runs and take the lead.
UCF's 4-2 deficit was cut in half on Darnell Sweeney's RBI double in the home half, and when the evening reached the fourth inning, the lightning arrived as well. Moments after the tarp was unraveled, the rain hit hard. That gave way to a Tornado Warning in Orange County. The two squads waited just over an hour and half before ultimately being forced to call the game before it became official.
Tuesday's contest was serving as the final home game in a Black and Gold uniform for seniors Shane Brown, Chris Duffy, Matt Goodyear, Matt Manning and Cory Weech. Brown and Duffy started in the outfield, while Goodyear and Weech had already made appearances out of the pen prior to the weather moving in.
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