May 25, 2011
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By John Denton
UCFAthletics.com
PEARL, Miss. (UCFAthletics.com) - Long before Wednesday's 16-9 rout of Memphis in first-day play of the Conference USA Championship presented by Trustmark and the stirring late run to close the regular season, there was ``the plan'' for UCF's baseball team.
Pull off ``the plan,'' UCF manager Terry Rooney predicted, and the Knights would be in a position to play for a championship and return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2004. But stumble down the stretch and the Knights would have likely been looking on from afar at this postseason.
Three weeks ago, UCF's baseball team was seemingly a broken bunch having just lost a home series to Houston and staring at the prospects of possibly missing both the C-USA tournament and the NCAA Tournament. That's when Rooney mapped out ``the plan,'' as it is affectionately known now by the Knights. It called for UCF to win four of six non-conference games and to go 4-2 in C-USA play. That, the Knights figured, would be enough to make them locks for the NCAA Tournament and give them ample momentum heading into the C-USA tournament.
UCF went one better than the projections, going 9-3 down the stretch with defeats of FSU, Stetson and USF, while also sweeping UAB and taking two of three from Marshall. And UCF's surging momentum continued on Wednesday when it opened C-USA Tournament play by pounding Memphis for 16 hits, two home runs, two doubles and a triple.
Up next for UCF is UAB on Thursday morning at 10 a.m. ET and the Knights are certainly going into the game with plenty of momentum.
``When we're playing our game we can beat any team in the country. We're hot right now and I don't know if anybody can beat us,'' predicted Erik Hempe, who hit his seventh home run of the season on Wednesday and drove in three runs. ``Our locker room is the cockiest locker room in America and we know we're going to win. That's just the mindset that you have to have. We've got it going right now.''
But UCF's confidence was shaken somewhat after the Houston series back in early May and that's when Rooney had to step in with the plan for his Knights to get to the postseason. Rooney's goal upon taking the UCF job three years ago was to restore the program to national prominence and he boldly talks constantly of the Knights making it to Omaha, Neb., for the College World Series. But first the Knights had to figure out how to get in gear this season.
``Throughout the year as a coach you emphasize the process, try not to be so consumed with the wins and just work to get better every day. But it gets to a point sometimes where the guys need to know exactly what it takes and if they can't take the pressure then they are at the wrong place,'' Rooney said of the plan to close the regular season with eight wins in 10 games. ``They needed to see the bigger picture. We talk about Omaha and 1,430 (miles away) and that's what they are recruited here to do. About 2.5 weeks ago we lost a tough series to Houston and the guys were down and I was frustrated, too. I told them we had 2.5 weeks to go and I told them that this is what we needed to do to get an at-large bid. We needed to go 4-2 in non-conference and 4-2 in conference. Everything was still in front of us.''
With an RPI at No. 18 and eight wins against nationally ranked teams, UCF has the belief that it can potentially win the C-USA tournament this week in Pearl, Miss., and then do some serious damage in the NCAA Tournament next weekend.
Catcher Beau Taylor, who like Hempe has been one of the team's hottest hitters of late, said the momentum the Knights are feeling now is contagious and it has restored the confidence to the team. Taylor had a hit, a RBI and two runs scored in Wednesday's win against Memphis.
``You have to go into every game feeling confident,'' Taylor said. ``I guess sometimes we're overconfident a little bit, but we're always competing with each other to be better and better. We are cocky because we know we're good.''
Rooney is confident that the Knights are ``locks'' to be in the NCAA Tournament based on their standing in the RPI and the quality wins against Florida (twice), Stetson (twice), FSU (once) and Alabama (once). UCF also put in a bid to host the NCAA Regional, something that could be strengthened by a title in this week's C-USA tournament.
``For the first time we've bid to host a NCAA Regional, our administration is behind us and I think it's very exciting,'' Rooney said. ``I think we're certainly very deserving. Right now, our RPI is 18th in the country and we're hoping to be in one of those 16 places that get to host. I'm excited about the opportunity to possibly host and our kids deserve it. We'll see what happens, but all we have to do is keep winning.''
Rooney, for one, is still somewhat amazed at how his Knights have followed ``the plan'' and are in a stretch of playing their best baseball at the right time.
``Two-and-half weeks ago I told them what I really thought we needed to do to get an at-large bid, and they did it perfectly,'' Rooney said. ``I think we're a lock now and deserving and (next week) we'll be sitting somewhere watching ESPN and getting our names called for the NCAA Tournament for the first time in seven years. I believe that totally.''
John Denton's Knights Insider appears on UCFAthletics.com several times a week. E-mail John at jdenton@athletics.ucf.edu.