Photo courtesy UCFSports.com
After managing just two runs on Saturday against Southeast Louisiana, UCF Baseball’s offense woke up on Sunday.
Darnell Sweeney went 4-for-5 with three doubles and Chris Taladay homered twice as the Knights blew out No. 29 Alabama, 12-4 in the final game of the South Alabama Classic in Mobile, Ala. on Sunday.
Sweeney and Taladay’s outburst were part of an 18-hit barrage for the Knights, with 12 of those hits going for extra bases. With the win, UCF took two of three games in the tournament and moved their record to 6-1 to open the 2011 season.
“The goal when you play every weekend is to at least win two of three,” head coach Terry Rooney said in a release. “And for our guys to bounce back (after Saturday) and play as well as we did today says a lot about the competitiveness in our ball club.”
Beau Taylor, whose 26-game hit streak ended on Saturday, hit his first homerun of the season, en route to going 2-for-4 at the plate with four RBI. Taladay tagged the ball all afternoon, crushing a South Alabama Classic record two homeruns in the ball game, for his first career multi-homer game. He finished the game 3-for-5 with five runs driven in.
On the mound, UCF received a gem from Ben Lively. The righty didn’t allow a run in five innings, striking out two and surrendering just three hits in his first collegiate start with the Knights.
“I think the tone of the game was set by Ben Lively,” Rooney said. “In his first-collegiate start he did a tremendous job against an SEC team. He obviously has an extremely bright future here and I’m really proud of the way he competed against them today.”
Ryan Breen, DJ Hicks, Ronnie Richardson and Travis Shreve all joined the hit parade as well, racking up eight hits and six RBI among them.
As for Sweeney, he has quite the weekend. In addition to going 4-for-5 on Sunday, Sweeney completed the weekend going 8-for-12 at the plate with four doubles, three RBI, three runs, a stolen base, three walks and no strikeouts.
“It was a really good weekend,” said Sweeney, who upped his average to .500 for the season. “I was just keeping everything simple, stayed relaxed and played my game. And I love having a guy like Shreve (at second base). He keeps the energy up and talks about nonsense half of the time. But it helps you stay in the game.”
UCF got going early in the game against the Crimson Tide. Back-to-back doubles from Sweeney and Taylor helped UCF get out to a 2-0 lead after the first.
After the Tide pulled within a run in the second, Sweeney doubled with Richardson on base with one out, putting two runners in scoring position. Taylor followed at the plate with a towering shot to center that was caught, but both Sweeney and Richardson came around to score on the unconventional two-run sac fly.
UCF added runs in the fourth and fifth innings off an RBI by Taladay, a sac fly from Derek Luciano and a solo homerun by Taylor, putting the Knights up 7-1. Alabama struck back with two runs in the bottom of the seventh to chip away at the lead, but Taladay connected on a 2-1 pitch the following inning with Breen on base for a two-run shot to make it 9-3. Richardson came around to score a couple batters later to make it 10-3 UCF.
Then Taladay put the finishing touches on the victory, jacking a two-strike pitch over the wall in right to give him his second long ball of the game.
With the win, UCF improved to 6-4 over Alabama and has won four-straight against the Crimson Tide dating back to 2001. It was the first win over a ranked team out of conference play since the Knights defeated Miami last season.
At 6-1, UCF is off to its best start since 2008 when they started the season 8-1.
