UCF has audio clip of the postgame interviews with head coach Terry Rooney, Tommy Williams and Kam Gellinger.
If you didn't follow the game, the offense had another awesome game - Tommy Williams went 6-for-7 with four RBI (first Knight with six hits in a game since Eric Riggs in 1998) and Kam Gellinger had five RBI. As a team, UCF had a season-high 20 hits.
After the six-hit effort, Tommy Williams has increased his batting average from .416 to .452 (38-for-84) and his hitting streak to 19 games.
Other offensive notes: Three home runs in the game (Williams, JoJo Woods, Erik Barber), three triples (Woods, Barber, Gellinger) and four doubles (Williams twice, Logan Heiser, Gellinger).
Box Score
However, the pitching effort, to put it frankly, was dismal. Starter Kyle Marsh had a good outing, giving up just one hit through his 3.0 innings pitched though he did walk three. Rooney wasn't asked afterward about specifics, but it does appear the plan was for Marsh to have a short outing. Ryan Meyer, who pitched 2.2 in the middle innings, did a good job as well but things completely went off track in the eighth inning when Tanner Olson and Trent Thompson entered the game (a combined eight batters faced and only one out between them). UCF was forced to bring in Harrison Hukari, but he only could get the second out, giving up two hits and a walk, and then Zach Rodgers came in to close out that inning (got a quick K) and also the ninth. In that ninth, Rodgers clearly didn't have his best stuff (gave up five hits and three runs, though only one of those runs was earned). In all, Bethune-Cookman registered 16 hits.
Here's what Rooney had to say afterward:
"In the course of a 56-game regular season like everybody plays and beyond that in the postseason, a lot of things can happen in baseball. I just told our guys, first of all, credit Bethune-Cookman. They kept fighting and put together some really good at-bats and did a nice job all the way through. It's baseball. In the course of a season, every team in the country, you're going to go through highs and lows and ups and downs in different parts. Right now our offense is incredible. Our offense is doing a terrific job. And right now our pitching is struggling the last couple games. It is what it is. But we're going to get better. There's no excuses. We're going to keep getting better. Things happen in the course of a 56-game season. You go up and you go down. Different parts of teh game, your pitching, offense and defense. It's not going to come and go, but some get better than the others. Right now we're swinging the bats and doing a terrific job. We need to pitch a little better and we will. We'll regroup and have a good practice. The bottom line is the guys are finding ways to win. Period. End of discussion. The fight in these guys is fantastic. We just need to clean our pitching up and we'll be fine."
He was then asked to comment on the night of two players in particular: Tommy Williams (six hits including a HR) and Kam Gellinger (3-for-6, five RBI).
"Those guys are doing great. Tommy has been doing it all year. Doing a terrific job. Kam is doing a nice job. He wasn't playing as often, but the last couple days has been in there and done a terrific job. Defensively has done a nice job and offensively is putting together some great at-bats. Every night we're getting contributions from some guys. We're swinging the bats great and for the most part playing good defense. Pitching is a little up and down, but we're going to get back on track. We have a great pitching staff. Once everything clicks on all cylinders we're going to be fantastic. Thank goodness our offense is in a zone and doing a terrific job."
UCF plays their final non-conference series against Presbyterian this weekend. The Blue Hose aren't a slouch. They did beat UCF last year (or rather the Citronauts). This year they are 14-6.
If you didn't follow the game, the offense had another awesome game - Tommy Williams went 6-for-7 with four RBI (first Knight with six hits in a game since Eric Riggs in 1998) and Kam Gellinger had five RBI. As a team, UCF had a season-high 20 hits.
After the six-hit effort, Tommy Williams has increased his batting average from .416 to .452 (38-for-84) and his hitting streak to 19 games.
Other offensive notes: Three home runs in the game (Williams, JoJo Woods, Erik Barber), three triples (Woods, Barber, Gellinger) and four doubles (Williams twice, Logan Heiser, Gellinger).
Box Score
However, the pitching effort, to put it frankly, was dismal. Starter Kyle Marsh had a good outing, giving up just one hit through his 3.0 innings pitched though he did walk three. Rooney wasn't asked afterward about specifics, but it does appear the plan was for Marsh to have a short outing. Ryan Meyer, who pitched 2.2 in the middle innings, did a good job as well but things completely went off track in the eighth inning when Tanner Olson and Trent Thompson entered the game (a combined eight batters faced and only one out between them). UCF was forced to bring in Harrison Hukari, but he only could get the second out, giving up two hits and a walk, and then Zach Rodgers came in to close out that inning (got a quick K) and also the ninth. In that ninth, Rodgers clearly didn't have his best stuff (gave up five hits and three runs, though only one of those runs was earned). In all, Bethune-Cookman registered 16 hits.
Here's what Rooney had to say afterward:
"In the course of a 56-game regular season like everybody plays and beyond that in the postseason, a lot of things can happen in baseball. I just told our guys, first of all, credit Bethune-Cookman. They kept fighting and put together some really good at-bats and did a nice job all the way through. It's baseball. In the course of a season, every team in the country, you're going to go through highs and lows and ups and downs in different parts. Right now our offense is incredible. Our offense is doing a terrific job. And right now our pitching is struggling the last couple games. It is what it is. But we're going to get better. There's no excuses. We're going to keep getting better. Things happen in the course of a 56-game season. You go up and you go down. Different parts of teh game, your pitching, offense and defense. It's not going to come and go, but some get better than the others. Right now we're swinging the bats and doing a terrific job. We need to pitch a little better and we will. We'll regroup and have a good practice. The bottom line is the guys are finding ways to win. Period. End of discussion. The fight in these guys is fantastic. We just need to clean our pitching up and we'll be fine."
He was then asked to comment on the night of two players in particular: Tommy Williams (six hits including a HR) and Kam Gellinger (3-for-6, five RBI).
"Those guys are doing great. Tommy has been doing it all year. Doing a terrific job. Kam is doing a nice job. He wasn't playing as often, but the last couple days has been in there and done a terrific job. Defensively has done a nice job and offensively is putting together some great at-bats. Every night we're getting contributions from some guys. We're swinging the bats great and for the most part playing good defense. Pitching is a little up and down, but we're going to get back on track. We have a great pitching staff. Once everything clicks on all cylinders we're going to be fantastic. Thank goodness our offense is in a zone and doing a terrific job."
UCF plays their final non-conference series against Presbyterian this weekend. The Blue Hose aren't a slouch. They did beat UCF last year (or rather the Citronauts). This year they are 14-6.
