Oct. 21, 2010
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By Brian Ormiston
UCFAthletics.com
ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFAthletics.com) - Gold's potent offense delivered 11 hits in a 10-5 six-inning victory over Black in game two of the Black and Gold World Series Thursday. The win enabled Gold to split the first two games with Black, as the third and final contest is slated for Friday at 6:30 p.m. Admission for all fans is free.
"Anytime you evaluate a game, you have to see both sides of it. So you're going to see the positive of the offense and the positive of the pitching and vice versa," said head coach Terry Rooney. "I think offensively we have the chance to be an outstanding team. We return virtually every starter with the exception of two outfield spots, so we are going to be very good at the plate. Last year we had one of the best offenses in the entire nation, and I would anticipate our offense to be the same this year. We have the opportunity to be one of the best in the country once again.
"And I think our pitching is continuing to improve and has been solid in spurts, but we need to be more consistent. That's the big key. It's there, I just want to see more consistency out of some of the guys. On the mound, though, there a lot of our pitchers who are making great adjustments. And Brian Adkins today showed that he is a great example of one of our returning players who has gotten better. He has done a terrific job all fall, and a lot of it is just his mental approach. He's a year older and more comfortable on the mound."
Gold's attack was led by Ryan Breen who went 3-for-4 with two runs and two RBI as well as Chris Taladay who compiled three RBI on a 2-for-3 day at the plate. Michael Holmes, Erik Hempe and Austin Johnston also recorded two hits each.
For Black's offense, Beau Taylor pounded out two hits, while Spencer Haynes rapped out two more hits as he is 6-for-7 in the first two games.
Looking to rebound from its game-one loss Wednesday, Gold opened up with consecutive hits to put two men aboard. And Taladay then sent another single into center, however Ronnie Richardson fielded it cleanly and sent a perfect one-hopper to the plate where Taylor laid the tag down on Hempe who was trying to score from second for the game's first out.
That did not deter Gold, though, and it would still bring around four runs highlighted by a successful squeeze bunt laid down by Johnston and a RBI double out of Holmes.
Yet Black answered right away with three in the top of the second inning as the first four players got aboard, and Haynes, potential walk-on Trace Davidson and Kevin Vasquez each picked up a RBI.
After a D.J. Hicks RBI double in the third tied it at 4-4, Gold delivered four more runs in the bottom half on two-run base hits out of Breen and Taladay. It pushed its lead to 9-4 through four innings on a sac fly from Holmes, while completed its scoring by making it 10-4 in the fifth thanks to a sac fly off the bat of Taladay.
As Gold was busy scoring runs, Adkins worked the third, fourth and fifth innings without allowing a run and striking out three. Black did plate one on a RBI groundout from Darnell Sweeney in the sixth and final frame, but Gold was able to hold on for the 10-5 victory.
Game Notes:
UCF Black - 5 R, 7 H, 2 E
UCF Gold - 10 R, 12 H, 0 E
-Black Pitchers: Alex Besaw (3.0 IP, 10 H, 8 R, 6 ER, 1 BB, 2 K), Jack Sterritt (2.0 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 1 K)
-Gold Pitchers: Danny Winkler (2.0 IP, 2 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 4 BB, 0 K), Brian Adkins (3.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 K), Jeff Dally (1.0 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 1 K)