April 22, 2011
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By John Denton
UCFAthletics.com
ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFAthletics.com) - Little did Brian Adkins know it at the time, but UCF head coach Terry Rooney had a master plan when he started the left-hander in the final regular-season game in 2010 at Tulane.
A dominant high school pitcher who held the University High record with 23 victories on the prep level, Adkins was often hit hard last season upon arriving at UCF with high expectations. But Rooney saw how the gritty Adkins hung in, made adjustments and refused to cave. And when Rooney gave Adkins that start in the finale, he was already looking ahead to this season and thinking of what it could do for Adkins' confidence.
``Brian's one of the best competitors on our team and he's come a long way in the past year since he arrived here. Brian really dominated in high school and he was hit with some adversity last year in the fall and had to overcome it,'' Rooney said. ``Last year, he pitched a lot of our big mid-week games against Florida, Miami and South Florida. And I purposely threw him the last conference game of the year at Tulane, hoping it would propel him into this year. About three weeks ago, I told Brian, `It's no longer good enough just to pitch in these big games. Now, we have to win them.' That really stuck with him. He's kept us competitive in games and he had a big win last week at East Carolina.''
Adkins, 5-2 this season with a 3.00 ERA, will be on the mound Friday when UCF (24-14 overall, 4-8 in Conference USA play) faces Memphis (23-15, 6-3) in a C-USA series that the Knights desperately need. They are hoping to build off Wednesday's impressive 8-6 defeat of No. 5 Florida before a school-record crowd of 3,601. The victory allowed the Knights to sweep the Gators for the season and set the stage for a strong late-season run.
Adkins started the season working mostly as a mid-week pitcher, but has progressed enough to start some of the Knights' biggest weekend games. He was the winning pitcher earlier this season against Rice and his victory at East Carolina last week came after a loss. Now, he's hoping to get UCF off to a strong start against Memphis in a pivotal series.
``Every game is important at this point in the season. We've got to get on a roll in conference play, and it's my job to get us off to a good start,'' said Adkins, an Orlando native. ``That East Carolina win last week was big for us. Coach had been talking to us about finding a way to get out of this rut that we're in. He said it was going to take a big performance from a pitcher throwing a shutout or something, so I was trying to be the guy to put the team on my back and get us out of that rut.''
A crafty lefty who relies more on location than power, Adkins has been successful this season by being remarkably efficient on the mound. In 48 innings pitched he's allowed just eight walks all season and teams have hit just .218 against him. That's certainly no fluke as he walked just 36 batters in 199 career innings in high school. The ability to change speeds and hit spots is impressive considering his lack of overpowering stuff from the 5-foot-11, 170-pound Adkins.
``That's one of the things that I pride myself on, not giving up free passes,'' Adkins said. ``I'm going to induce a lot of ground outs and fly balls and not get too many punch outs, so the fewer walks that I have the more successful that I'm going to be. That's my goal every game, keeping guys off base.''
Added Rooney: ``He has to have great command of the strike zone because his margin of error isn't great. If he misses by a couple of inches he could get hit hard. That's made it even more impressive with how he's pitched.''
Adkins had his struggles last season as a freshman, going 4-3 with a 5.80 ERA. He was the first to admit that he was somewhat rocked by the difficulty of the transition between pitching at the high school level and in college. But he made adjustments in his style and used the final start of the season against Tulane last year to set himself up for this season.
And now Adkins is proving to everyone that he can thrive at the college level despite a somewhat rocky start to his college career.
``It was eye-opening and I realized I had a lot to learn. The college game was more advanced than what I was used to, but I learned a lot and adjusted to pitching at this level,'' Adkins said. ``My competitiveness comes from a combination of things. In high school there were people who told me that I wasn't good enough to pitch at this level and I used that as fuel to the fire to prove some people wrong. And I just have a lot of pride in my school. I love putting on the UCF jersey. When I get the ball, I go out there and compete every time.''
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John Denton's Knights Insider appears on UCFAthletics.com several times a week. E-mail John at jdenton@athletics.ucf.edu.