Coach Terry Rooney said he jumbled his rotation to get usual Friday starter Cre Finfrock some extra rest. He reportedly had a tired arm.
The shift in the rotation though seemed to throw everyone off. And when it came for Finfrock’s turn to start Sunday, the fatigue Finfrock must have felt to keep him out Friday did not seem to be gone and the offense was still not responding.
Tulane completed a sweep of UCF this weekend at Jay Bergman Field with a 6-0 shutout on Sunday afternoon.
Finfrock went just 2 2/3 innings pitched, giving up eight hits and five runs in a five-run third inning. The Knights had to go to their bullpen and hold the ship steady. After Harrison Hukari allowed one more run to open the fourth inning, UCF got a shutout from the remaining four pitchers.
The hole was too deep though. Like it has all weekend though, the offense brought little support.
UCF managed only three hits on the afternoon. At one point, UCF loaded the bases on three consecutive walks but could not knock that fateful run home.
The Knights tallied only four runs and 16 hits in the three-game series. Their 16-for-95 hitting (.168 batting average) is simply not going to help jump start an offense or give the pitching staff the support it needs.
The poor offensive play at the plate was as much a story for the weekend as the shift in the usually reliable pitching staff. The combination of the pitching miscues — and both Robby Howell and Juan Pimentel performed well enough to score wins in their starts Friday and Saturday — along with the offensive struggles led to UCF’s first weekend sweep in conference play.
And it came at a time UCF needed wins to stay on the pace at the top of the American. Perhaps the Knights were not ever at that level and were merely staying afloat. This kind of a weekend was always on the horizon.
UCF will have a midweek game to get its ship in order before heading to Tampa to take on USF this weekend in that big rivalry series. The Knights took two of three from the Bulls earlier this season at Jay Bergman Field.
You failed to mention the inconsistent strike zones of the umpiring crew during the entire weekend. You also failed to mention that the UCF’s defense cost them all weekend. The official scorer’s may have wanted to be generous but there were a minimum of 3 errors (Crile, Gellinger and Mika) Sunday’s second inning and a dropped ball for the 3rd out at the plate (incredible throw by Matt Diorio from deep left) in the 8th inning of Saturday’s game that let to the tying and eventual winning runs.
This team has several holes: It lacks a mastery of fundamentals; Every hitter comes to the plate swinging for the fences when they just don’t have that kind of power; inconsistent bullpen once you get past an overused Trent Thompson.
Tulane’s Coach Pierce schooled Andy Rooney on how to play the game: Aggressive at bats putting the ball in play; smart and aggressive base running – all lacking from the Knights. UCF has already lost 2 head coached this school year. Looks like there might be a 3rd.
Tim covered a lot of those frustrations in his article on Friday and Saturday’s games. There is a definite issue with the baseball team right now. Can definitely sense the frustration with the entire team. I do not think jumbling up the rotation this weekend was the right call either.