March 23, 2012
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By John Denton, Knights Insider
UCFAthletics.com
ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFAthletics.com) - UCF is ranked No. 19 nationally, has already swept USF and stormed through non-conference play with a stellar 17-5 record. And to hear head coach Terry Rooney tell it, the Knights have yet to play anywhere near their best baseball.
The hope, of course, is that the best is yet to come - starting Friday night with the Conference USA opener against arch-rival East Carolina at the UCF baseball complex. The two teams will play Friday at 6:30 p.m., Saturday at 4 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m.
"I'm satisfied with our first 22 games, but I don't think we've played our best baseball yet, which I view as a positive," Rooney said. "Regarding the work ethic and mentality of our team, it's been great. But we just have to keep playing the game better and improving."
Picked to finish second in C-USA and having opened the season in the national polls, the Knights have lived up to the preseason hype. But they will have their work cut out for them in the three-game home set against a talented East Carolina (15-5) squad.
Fresh off a midweek defeat of USF in Tampa on Tuesday night, the Knights know it's never too early to send a message that they are determined to be one of the top teams in C-USA this season.
"East Carolina is a very good team and they really fight. They are kind of similar to us,"UCF junior closer Joe Rogers said. "We just have to play our kind of baseball and not worry about who is in the other dugout. If we'll just do the fundamental stuff, we'll be all right."
The Knights have been better than all right this season because of the solid work by their pitching staff. UCF leads Conference USA with a 2.97 staff ERA. Brian Adkins (1-0) and Ben Lively (3-0) have been weekend stoppers for the Knights and will pitch the first two games of the series. Garrett Nuss (1.56 ERA) and Eric Skoglund (1.57 ERA) have excelled in holding down the middle innings to get the ball to Rogers (six saves) to close it out.
"The thing that we're stressing is any reliever who goes in to take your one inning or how many ever innings it is and close out your inning,'' Rogers said. ``Everybody going in - Jimmy Reed, Nuss, Skoglund and Roman Madrid have pitched great and we know the bats are going to pick up soon for us."
Rooney's one objection so far is that the Knights have unexpectedly struggled at times to put up runs. Four of the five losses have been by one run and the Knights could have used a hit here or there to make a difference in those games.
Junior Ronnie Richardson came up with a huge hit for the Knights on Tuesday, banging a ball off the left-field fence to plate three runs and give UCF the lead over USF. Rooney considers Richardson one of the Knights' most clutch hitters for his ability to come through in pressure situations and he calls his drive against USF, "as big a hit as we've had all season."
Richardson is hitting just .273 on the season, but he leads the team in on-base percentage (.515) because he's been hit by 14 pitches and he's walked 20 times. Richardson said it's just a matter of time before UCF's offense breaks out with a big night at the plate. He's hoping such a night comes this weekend so that the Knights can take some pressure off the pitching staff.
"(Against USF). I felt like if we took the lead our bullpen would take care of it and get the job done," Richardson said. "We're not scoring a lot of runs as of right now, but we're still grinding out at bats and trying to take advantage of situations. For those (pitchers) to put zeroes on the board it keeps us in games."
Rooney, who guided UCF to the NCAA Regional last season, said the Knights will determine their fate with how they play in conference play. UCF has designs on hosting a NCAA Regional later in the spring and the best way to ensure that is to dominate C-USA play.
"Conference play is different in that it's a different time of the year and I call it our second segment. But I also want the guys to realize that every game matters and what we're playing for is an at-large bid," Rooney said. "At the end of the day, the first step in getting to Omaha is getting to a NCAA Regional and everything you are doing is shooting for that at-large bid. So whether it's a conference or non-conference game, every game matters. We just need to finish strong to get that NCAA bid that we want at the end of the year."
John Denton's Knights Insider appears on UCFAthletics.com several times a week. E-mail John at jdenton@athletics.ucf.edu