UCF will face Alabama Sunday at noon in Tallahassee in the NCAA Tournament. UCF defeated Alabama earlier this season but lost to Bama yesterday.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (UCFAthletics.com) – In a span of three-consecutive pitches in the seventh inning, No. 2 UCF scored five runs and eventually plated 13 runs in the final three innings to defeat No. 4 Bethune-Cookman, 16-5, in the NCAA Tallahassee Regional Saturday. It was the most runs scored in a game by the Knights (39-22) in their NCAA Tournament history.
“I’m very proud of the effort of our guys,” said head coach Terry Rooney. “We faced an outstanding Bethune-Cookman club, a team that we played (twice) during the year and their starting pitcher did a tremendous job. But our guys continued to battle throughout the day. I thought Danny Winkler pitched fantastic. He was incredible.”
A day after combining to go 1-for-15 vs. Alabama, Beau Taylor, D.J. Hicks, Jonathan Griffin and Derek Luciano all tore apart Wildcat (36-25) pitching. The quartet went 13-for-21 with 11 RBI, 11 runs and five extra-base hits. Hicks and Griffin each collected four hits, with Griffin driving in five to tie a UCF record for most RBI in a NCAA Tournament game.
Griffin crushed his 19th home run of the season as well, putting him in sole possession of second on the UCF single-season chart. He trails only Chris Duffy, who belted 21 four-baggers last year. The senior also has 32-career homers in just two seasons as a Knight to place him in a tie for sixth in UCF history.
Winkler was on his way to possibly his best outing of the season, pitching 5.2 shutout innings with just two hits against and six strikeouts. Yet two errors on a single play with nobody on base and two outs in the sixth inning led to four unearned runs to help the Wildcats eliminate a 3-0 deficit, and Winkler’s day was over.
“I just stuck to my game plan like I’ve been doing the last couple of weeks,” said Winkler. “I was getting ahead early, but I wasn’t happy with (my slider). So I was trying to command my fastball. And with their starter going like he was, that kept me in it so I kept pounding the zone.”
The Wildcats decided to start righty Rayan Gonzalez on the mound vs. the Knights. And the junior surrendered three-straight one-out singles in the top of the first to Taylor, Hicks and Griffin with Griffin driving in Taylor on a chopper over the head of third baseman Emmanuel Castro.
Given an early 1-0 lead, Winkler proceeded to limit Bethune-Cookman to just one hit in the first three innings, striking out five. That was highlighted by the right-hander sitting down the side on strikes in the third. Winkler then stranded a pair of runners with one out in the fourth.
UCF was unable to build its advantage on the scoreboard due to Gonzalez mowing down the Knights. They did have a two-out opportunity after Darnell Sweeney singled to center and Ronnie Richardson drew a walk, however the B-CU right-hander picked up his eighth strikeout of the game to return to the dugout.
Although Gonzalez motored through to get to the sixth inning, his pitch count was well into triple figures after UCF finally got the big hit it had been searching for all day long. As Griffin stood in the on-deck circle, he witnessed Hicks drive a 3-2 pitch into right for a leadoff single. The first baseman strode to the plate and quickly fell behind 0-2. And for some reason he did not like his mugshot on the left-field scoreboard, so he attempted to alter it by demolishing a 1-2 offering that came within a few feet of his face for a two-run homer.
Now jogging out to the hill with a 3-0 lead in the sixth, Winkler, who had thrown just 61 pitches, continued to cruise, getting the first two outs and inducing Peter O’Brien to send a lazy fly ball to left-center. That was when the state of the game changed, as there was miscommunication in the UCF outfield. Two errors on the play led to a hit by pitch and two walks to bring in the Wildcats’ first run.
Winkler tried to get that crucial third out, but Brashad Johnson delivered a two-run, two-out, two-strike single into left to tie it up at 3-3. Nick Cicio entered earlier than expected from the pen, and DJ Leonard sent his second pitch to left for a RBI single.
All of a sudden down 4-3, the UCF bats were not concerned by their newly-found one-run hole. A pair of two-strike singles by Sweeney and Richardson greeted reliever Chris Anselmo in the seventh, and although Taylor failed to get a sac bunt down, he ripped a 1-2 pitch off the high fence in right for a long single to load the bases.
Similar to Bethune-Cookman taking advantage of its scoring chance in the previous inning, the Knights were not going to let this one slip away either.
Freshman Bryan Rivera was called in from the B-CU bullpen and the southpaw threw only three pitches in his appearances. All of them resulted in RBI hits, as Hicks punched a single between first and second, Griffin dropped a two-run double into left and Luciano lined a two-run single up the middle. That was it for Rivera, who gave way to Gabriel Hernandez, and the Knights tacked on three more runs highlighted by RBI from Travis Shreve and Sweeney.
With the eight-run inning complete, UCF added a four more in the eighth to stretch the lead to 15-5. Kick-started by a double out of Taylor, Hicks drove in the catcher on a single, Griffin walked on five pitches and Luciano socked a two-run double into the right-field corner. And with the sun beating down onto Dick Howser Stadium, lightning was detected which delayed play for 3:20. When play ultimately resumed, Luciano eventually scored UCF’s 15th run on a wild pitch. To close out the offense, Kevin Vasquez drew a RBI walk with two outs in the ninth, and Bryan Brown tossed the final 2.0 innings to send UCF back to the hotel in a jolly mood.
