Got to win two of three now. Last year UCF won 2 of 3 vs. Presbyterian and also in 2012 (which was the best Rooney year so far). The Blue Hose have never gone down easy.
Links to follow:
Game Tracker
All-Access Video ($)
@UCF_Baseball on Twitter
===
Presbyterian evens series
A seven-run third inning proved to be UCF's downfall as they were unable to rally in an 8-6 loss to Presbyterian on Saturday.
The Knights raced out to a 4-0 advantage in the first inning highlighted by a three-run homer from Erik Barber.
Starter Robby Howell was perfect through two, but the third inning was a different story as five singles, a walk and double ultimately led to seven Blue Hose runs on the board and gave way to Parker Thomas entering the game in relief. Thomas, a senior lefty, proved to be a bright spot. He gave up one unearned run in the fourth inning, but put up zeros for the final five to keep the game in check.
Unfortunately for UCF, a comeback was not in the cards this time. The only scoring in the final eight innings came off solo home runs from Barber (his second of the day) in the sixth and Logan Heiser in the ninth.
"Obviously, (the third) was the big inning," UCF coach Terry Rooney said. "Gave up seven runs. You can't win many games doing that. Credit Presbyterian. They strung together a bunch of hits and did a very nice job. At the end of the day, it's caught up to us. We talk about it all the time, try to stay out of the big inning. Today we weren't able to do it.
"I thought the story of the game was Parker Thomas. What a terrific job he did for us. We talked about the beginning of the game, guys rising up for their opportunities, kind of like Brooks Morgan did for us yesterday and again today. We needed a pitcher to do it. Parker Thomas did a terrific job out there for us. Gave us a chance all the way through... Parker has been great. His last three, four or five outings, he's been terrific in short stints and long stints. He gave us a chance to win.
"But again, the guys fought to the end and continued to do it. But the bottom line is we've got to play a little bit better and stay out of the big inning. We weren't able to do that today."
"We've been battling back it seems like almost every night. I know it's not every night, but it seems like it. It finally caught up to us. At the end of the day you can't give up the big inning. That's something we have to get better at."
Just as it was a year ago against Presbyterian, Sunday's game three will decide the series.
"I told the guys the majority of Sundays are going to be like this," Rooney said. "Championship Sunday, you try to win the series. Tomorrow we need to get it done.
"We have to play better. Every pitch matters. We just need to put it all together. We need to put everything together. But obviously you can't give up the crooked number, not that large of an inning. We need to stay out of that. We've got everybody ready to go on the mound tomorrow."
Rooney will announce Sunday's starter prior to the game. An option could be Kyle Marsh, who started and pitched 3.0 innings last Tuesday at Bethune-Cookman. Marsh was the designated hitter on Friday and had the day off on Saturday.
This post was edited on 3/22 6:33 PM by Brandon
Links to follow:
Game Tracker
All-Access Video ($)
@UCF_Baseball on Twitter
===
Presbyterian evens series
A seven-run third inning proved to be UCF's downfall as they were unable to rally in an 8-6 loss to Presbyterian on Saturday.
The Knights raced out to a 4-0 advantage in the first inning highlighted by a three-run homer from Erik Barber.
Starter Robby Howell was perfect through two, but the third inning was a different story as five singles, a walk and double ultimately led to seven Blue Hose runs on the board and gave way to Parker Thomas entering the game in relief. Thomas, a senior lefty, proved to be a bright spot. He gave up one unearned run in the fourth inning, but put up zeros for the final five to keep the game in check.
Unfortunately for UCF, a comeback was not in the cards this time. The only scoring in the final eight innings came off solo home runs from Barber (his second of the day) in the sixth and Logan Heiser in the ninth.
"Obviously, (the third) was the big inning," UCF coach Terry Rooney said. "Gave up seven runs. You can't win many games doing that. Credit Presbyterian. They strung together a bunch of hits and did a very nice job. At the end of the day, it's caught up to us. We talk about it all the time, try to stay out of the big inning. Today we weren't able to do it.
"I thought the story of the game was Parker Thomas. What a terrific job he did for us. We talked about the beginning of the game, guys rising up for their opportunities, kind of like Brooks Morgan did for us yesterday and again today. We needed a pitcher to do it. Parker Thomas did a terrific job out there for us. Gave us a chance all the way through... Parker has been great. His last three, four or five outings, he's been terrific in short stints and long stints. He gave us a chance to win.
"But again, the guys fought to the end and continued to do it. But the bottom line is we've got to play a little bit better and stay out of the big inning. We weren't able to do that today."
"We've been battling back it seems like almost every night. I know it's not every night, but it seems like it. It finally caught up to us. At the end of the day you can't give up the big inning. That's something we have to get better at."
Just as it was a year ago against Presbyterian, Sunday's game three will decide the series.
"I told the guys the majority of Sundays are going to be like this," Rooney said. "Championship Sunday, you try to win the series. Tomorrow we need to get it done.
"We have to play better. Every pitch matters. We just need to put it all together. We need to put everything together. But obviously you can't give up the crooked number, not that large of an inning. We need to stay out of that. We've got everybody ready to go on the mound tomorrow."
Rooney will announce Sunday's starter prior to the game. An option could be Kyle Marsh, who started and pitched 3.0 innings last Tuesday at Bethune-Cookman. Marsh was the designated hitter on Friday and had the day off on Saturday.
This post was edited on 3/22 6:33 PM by Brandon
