Friday night’s stirring come-from-behind victory seemed to awaken something in this UCF Knights baseball team.
The Knights had lost a lead built meticulously and preserved by ace Cree Frinfrock. The good will built by the first five innings of work seemed to be dissipating and the Knights would have to rely on new faces to come through.
As UCF came back in that ninth inning, a new identity and new faces emerged. Freshman Matt Mika was just the hero of that first game, delivering a single to drive in the winning run for a 10-9 win at Jay Bergman Field.
Then the hits kept coming. The floodgates were open for UCF to get a season-opening sweep of the Siena Saints.
The Knights hung 15 on the Saints in the second game Saturday in a shutout win and then posted another 11 runs in an 11-2 win Sunday to complete the weekend.
On Saturday, got 17 hits including a 2-for-4, 3-RBI effort from Mika to back up his stellar performance in his first collegiate game for the Knights. UCF took control with four runs in the second inning to take firm control.
Five pitchers combined for the shutout led by junior Robby Howell. He struck out six in 5 2/3 innings as the bullpen held on this time and cleaned up five more strikeouts in the dominating performance.
The Knights had four hitters tally mutli-hit and multi-RBI games.
“We picked up right where we left off yesterday,” shortstop Brennan Bozeman told UCFKnights.com. “Everybody hit and had a great game. It took the whole team in every aspect.”
Bozeman went two for five in the game.
He and the Knights kept the momentum going into Sunday’s game where the Knights again dominated.
UCF scored nine runs in the first five innings before Siena could finally breakthrough and get on the board. And again the Knights bullpen held onto the large lead this time. There was no doubt after the emotion from the first game sucked the air out of Siena’s hopes.
Mika again had three hits to complete a stellar opening weekend for the freshman utility player. Catcher Matt Diorio went 2 for 5 for three RBIs.
The bullpen also stood tall after starter Nick McCoy was only able to go 2/3 of an inning with a walk and a strikeout.
The team rallied together to save each other Friday and it was clear the team kept that momentum rolling through the weekend.
“Overall, the guys did a nice job,” head coach Terry Rooney told UCFKnights.com. “There were a lot of different contributions on the mound and at the plate. It is not easy to win three games on a weekend because you have to play every pitch. The tone was set with the comeback on Friday night.”
The Knights were certainly shaky that first game. After the way things ended last year for UCF, it felt like that collapse on opening night would bring more of the same. But Terry Rooney and his team continued to grow and come together in a major way.
Siena is probably not the strongest opponent UCF will even see in the non-conference. But an important tone was set for the first weekend of the season. The Knights are more than capable of coming together.
