May 25, 2013
UCF Athletics Social Media Directory
By Eric DeSalvo
UCFAthletics.com
HOUSTON, Texas (UCFAthletics.com) - The 2013 baseball season came to a close Friday night for UCF as it fell to UAB, 5-1, in the Conference USA Championship at Reckling Park. The contest against the Blazers officially ended the Knights' eight-year run in C-USA as they will join the American Athletic Conference on July 1.
Friday night also saw an end to 11 seniors' careers in a black and gold uniform. The group of Knights (29-30) aided in UCF's return to the national spotlight with back-to-back NCAA Regional appearances in 2011-12, while also assisting in tying a program-best ranking at No. 7 on April 23, 2012, in the USA Today/ESPN Coaches Poll.
Looking for their fourth win over the Blazers (23-36) this year, the Knights fell behind quickly as UAB plated a run in the first, two in the third and closed out its scoring with single digits in each of the fifth and sixth frames.
UCF was led at the dish by redshirt senior Erik Hempe who went 2-for-3 with his 17th double of the year while scoring the Knights' lone run in the eighth. Senior LHP Brian Adkins made his 49th-career start in the season finale to tie him for second all-time in school history along with Justin Pope (1999-01).
Senior Chris Taladay also left his imprint on the UCF record books as he closed out his career fourth all-time with 854 at-bats while finishing in sole possession of sixth on the all-time hit list with 273-career base-knocks.
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