Feb. 24, 2012
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By Eric DeSalvo
UCFAthletics.com
ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFAthletics.com) - The No. 19 UCF baseball team used a four-run fifth inning and go-ahead RBI double by junior catcher Ryan Breen (Palm City, Fla.) in the seventh to knock Boston College from the unbeaten in a 6-5 victory Friday night at the UCF baseball complex.
The Knights (4-1) pushed their lead in the series to 4-0 with the Friday night victory over the Eagles (3-1).
"We needed to win that kind of back-and-forth tight game," UCF head coach Terry Rooney said. "We had an opportunity to get our guys the confidence that we talked about and we really hung in there. Their pitching staff did an outstanding job, but that is the resiliency that you need in a club. They hung in there with poise and grinded it out."
With the winds blowing out from the WSW at 22mph, Boston College took advantage early in the first as center fielder Tom Bourdon hit a high fly ball to right that continued to carry all the way over the party deck to give the Eagles an early 2-0 lead.
Sophomore righty Ben Lively (Gulf Breeze, Fla.) would bounce back in a big way, setting down the next nine batters in order, including six strikeouts in just three innings work. He would end the night going six innings with a career-high 11 punch-outs.
Facing a 3-1 deficit heading into the bottom of the fifth without a hit, UCF was finally able to get to BC's Eric Stevens, tagging him for three runs before knocking him out just a third of the way through the frame.
Senior right fielder Alex Friedrich (Orlando, Fla.) led off bottom of the fifth with a screamer down the left-field line for his third double of the season and the first hit of the game for UCF. His shot down the line ignited the UCF offense as junior college transfer Nick Carrillo (Glendale, Ariz.) followed suit by sending a 3-1 pitch over the right-field wall for his first-career homer as a Knight.
A Travis Shreve (Auburn, Wash.) double over third basemen John Hennessy's head set up shortstop Darnell Sweeney (Miramar, Fla.) with a RBI situation which the junior cashed in on by grooving a pitch to center to drive in Shreve. First basemen D.J. Hicks (Altamonte Springs, Fla.) would reach on an error when new pitcher Nate Bayuk dropped the ball while covering first, allowing Sweeney to score from second.
Boston College would later tie up the game in the seventh with two runs of their own to push the score to five-all.
UCF exercised excellent two-out hitting as junior Chris Taladay (Windermere, Fla.) took the first pitch he saw through the infield to right for a single. Breen helped the Knights reclaim the lead in the inning with a double down the right-field line to plate the hustling Taladay from first for the go-ahead run.
After junior Roman Madrid (Victoria, Texas) recorded the last two outs of the seventh and first of the eighth, closer Joe Rogers (Winter Haven, Fla.) stepped on the mound and gave the Knights just what they needed, inducing a 4-6-43 double play to end the inning. He returned in the ninth to nail down his first save of the year, and 18th of his career, with two assists from Hicks at first and a called strike three to close out the ballgame.
Overall, Shreve, who went 3-4 with a stolen base, and Friedrich both extended their hitting streaks to five games.
UCF returns for game two of the series Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m. Action from the UCF baseball complex can be seen live on All-Access via UCFAthletics.com.