UCF’s MO all season long has been the strength and length of its lineup. With injuries to important offensive pieces like Matt Diorio, Logan Heiser and Matthew Mika, the Knights could have folded early in the season.
On Sunday, UCF showed why its lineup is capable of winning games on its own as it completed a sweep of LIU Brooklyn with a 12-7 victory at Jay Bergman field.
Backed by an Austin Griffin grand slam in the bottom of the fifth inning, along with a 3-RBI day from right fielder Eli Putnam, UCF was able to scratch out multiple runs in the second, fifth, sixth and eighth innings.
“We really talked before the game about toughness,” head coach Terry Rooney said. “It doesn’t matter who we’re playing, we just need to be tougher on Sundays.”
Championship Sunday has been a theme for Rooney during his tenure as UCF baseball coach, and today was no exception.
UCF was relentless offensively as every starter had at least one hit Sunday. Griffin’s grand slam was the turning point in the game as the Knights were down 4-3 at the time of the blast. But with his mammoth shot in the fifth, UCF did not relinquish the lead from there.
“I was trying to get the ball to the outfield and score a run right there,” Griffin said. “I barreled it up and a grand slam was a nice little something extra.”
Griffin has been a steady run-producer for the Knights in the early going this season. Through 17 games, he has hit four home runs, two of them grand slams, and has 21 RBIs.
Griffin went 2 for 4 with two runs in Friday’s win and 1 for 4 with a solo home run in Saturday’s 5-2 win.
“He’s done a great job,” head coach Rooney said. “Sometimes when you’re bunting all the time you’re living and dying with every pitch, but when you have some guys that can hit the ball in the gaps like Griff it really helps.”
The Knights got hitting from elsewhere too, even some unlikely places. UCF sophomore walk-on David Phrathep delivered a hit in the 10th inning to give the Knights a walk-off 4-3 win.
With as good as the offense was for UCF this weekend in its three-game sweep of LIU-Brooklyn, the pitching may have been as equally poor on the other side.
UCF has a very nice 1-2 punch with starters Cre Finfrock and Robby Howell, who have been stellar so far this season. Beyond that, the staff thins out tremendously, and today the Knights’ arms were inconsistent and erratic.
UCF needed seven different pitchers to complete nine innings of work. Trent Thompson got the start for the Knights and only completed one inning. Andrew Deramo came on and pitched well in his first three clean innings. He ran into trouble in the fifth as LIU (3-10) put two across to take the lead.
The offense was able to bail the pitchers out today, but to have more sustained success against higher level opponents, the Knights will need to focus on improving their bullpen.
“We’ve got to clean up our bullpen,” Rooney said. “It is an audition, we need to find guys who can throw more strikes.”
And that audition could last the remainder of the season if UCF does not find some answers in the depth of its pitching staff. A team ERA of 5.01 is too inconsistent to compete at the high level American Conference baseball demands.
That said, there is a lot of season left and lots of room for improvement, and lots of bright spots for UCF to build upon and look forward to.
With the win on Sunday, UCF improves to 8-1 at home on the year and 10-7 overall.
UCF will host the Miami Hurricanes on Wednesday trying to extend its winning streak to four games.
