May 26, 2011
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By Brian Ormiston
UCFAthletics.com
PEARL, Miss. (UCFAthletics.com) - No. 4 UCF and No. 1 Rice (ranked 15th in the nation) square off Friday at 1:30 p.m. ET for the right to advance to the title game of the C-USA Championship presented by Trustmark. The Knights are 2-0 in pool play while the Owls are 1-1 having defeated Memphis after falling to UAB.
Schedule - Pearl, Miss.:
Wednesday - vs. No. 5 Memphis - W, 16-9
Thursday - vs. No. 8 UAB - W, 6-4
Friday - vs. No. 1 Rice - 1:30 p.m. ET
Saturday - Championship Game - 8 p.m. ET
Records:
No. 1 Rice - 39-19 Overall, 16-8 C-USA
No. 4 UCF - 37-20 Overall, 12-12 C-USA
Stadium:
Trustmark Park (8,480)
Series:
Rice leads, 17-6
Live Coverage:
740-AM, UCFAthletics.com and Twitter.com/UCF_Baseball
Multimedia Coverage
-Every game this week is scheduled to air on 740-AM in Orlando with Marc Daniels on the call. Links and live stats will be available at UCFAthletics.com.
-Saturday's championship game will be televised by CBS Sports Network.
Upcoming Opponent
-Rice dropped a 9-8 decision (after trailing 9-1) in the opener to UAB then fell behind to Memphis 5-0 in the first inning Thursday. But the Owls recovered to get the victory and now are 39-19 on the season.
-Holding an 11-3 record in their last 14 games, the Owls got the No. 1 seed by topping Southern Miss twice on the road in the final weekend of the regular season.
-Senior lefty Abe Gonzales is slated to get the start Friday and he is 6-2 with a 3.17 ERA this year (four starts).
The Series
-UCF won its first series against Rice this year by taking two of three in Houston March 25-27, cutting the all-time deficit to the Owls to 17-6.
-In that series, both teams hit .284 with Ronnie Richardson pacing the Knights with a .455 average against Rice. Ben Lively got the win in game one, while Brian Adkins earned the victory in relief in the rubber match. Closer Joe Rogers nabbed the save in both wins.
-The Knights are 0-1 vs. Rice in the C-USA Championship.
Griffin's Flight
-Senior first baseman Jonathan Griffin homered in his first at-bat this season. And since then, he has totaled 18 dingers to rank in a tie for second on the UCF single-season chart (Chris Duffy owns the record with 21 in 2010).
-Griffin has at least one hit in 46 of 58 games this year.
-In the last 29 contests, Griffin has at least one hit in 26 of them.
-And in the last four games, Griffin is 10-for-17 with four homers, 10 RBI and seven runs.
-The righty has hit a home run in each of the previous three contests. Earlier this year, Griffin had a four-bagger in four-straight games.
The Knights vs. Top Teams
-UCF is 10-10 against teams in the top 50 of the RPI.
-The Knights are 8-7 against nationally-ranked programs.
UCF Loving the Month of May
-After starting May with a 2-3 record, including a 1-2 mark vs. No. 6 Florida State, UCF began playing its best ball en route to a possible berth in the NCAA Tournament.
-The Knights are 9-1 in their last 10 decisions, including a 2-0 record in the C-USA Championship.
-This week marks the first time since the 2005 Atlantic Sun Tournament that UCF posted consecutive postseason victories.
A Huge Beginning
-Leaving only five runners on base, UCF led 9-3 before breaking a 9-9 tie en route to a 16-9 victory over Memphis in the first game of the C-USA tournament.
-The 16 runs were the most in a postseason game since May 16, 2001, when the Knights topped Troy, 18-1, in the Atlantic Sun Tournament.
-UCF's previous record for runs in a C-USA Championship game was six.
Winkler's Return
-Opening Day starter Danny Winkler returned to the rotation April 24 at Memphis, and since then he has worked at least 5.0 innings in each of his six starts (he also has gone 5.0 innings or more in seven-straight appearances overall.
-The junior righty is racking up the strikeouts as well. Winkler has totaled 86 on the year in 76.2 innings, highlighted by 16 in his last 10.0 innings.
-The 86 Ks are the most by a UCF pitcher since Tim Bascom registered 90 in 2006.
Random Notes From Mississippi
-UCF has left just nine runners on base while totaling 26 hits in two games of the C-USA Championship.
-The Knights have not committed an error this week.
-Jonathan Griffin and Derek Luciano each are 5-for-8 at the plate, while Ronnie Richardson is 4-for-7.
-Opponents have a 10.06 ERA vs. UCF.
-UCF is being outhit 28-26 during the tournament, but it has a .474 average with runners in scoring position compared to a .304 mark by its opponents.