April 21, 2008

Oviedo, FL (UWIRE) -- The UCF Baseball team welcomed the presence of Kiko Vazquez to its lineup for the first time this season Saturday at Marshall. But frankly, offense wasn't the problem for the Knights this weekend in Huntington, W. Va., as the Thundering Herd completed a three-game sweep by scores of 12-10, 9-6 and 12-9

It was Marshall's first three-game series victory against UCF and it dropped the Knights' record to 26-16 overall, 4-11 in Conference USA.

The Knights had 45 hits in the series, their second-most this season, but as much as they were able to score, they couldn't keep the Herd off the scoreboard.

In Sunday's finale, the Knights knocked out 15 hits and got two home runs from Chris Duffy, but starting pitcher Carmine Giardina gave up 10 hits and seven runs in 5.1 innings pitched.

"Our starting pitching has laid an egg," UCF coach Jay Bergman said in a press release after Saturday's defeat. "That's been it. ... We are scoring runs, but we are just giving up more runs than we are scoring."

That starting pitching didn't get any worse than the first inning of Saturday's game, in which the first six Marshall batters reached base against UCF's Mitch Houck.

Adam Yeager began the game with a walk and, after advancing to second on a wild pitch, scored on Brandon Casamassima's single to center field on a hit-and-run play.

Following a walk and a double steal that put runners on second and third, Houck gave up an RBI single to Nate Lape, which scored Casamassima. Houck then allowed another run to score on a balk, followed by an RBI double by Tommy Johnson to give the Thundering Herd a 4-0 lead going to the second inning.

Vazquez was the Knights' triple crown winner in 2007 and was named to the preseason Golden Spikes Award Watch List in February. But after suffering a broken forearm during a preseason team scrimmage, he missed the first 40 games of the season.

"There is a little ache and pain in there, but he wanted to get out there and play and help the team," Bergman said about Vazquez in a press release. "It's good to have him back in the lineup because it will help us quite a bit."

Vazquez made his first contribution in the third inning of his season debut. After two singles and a walk loaded the bases with two outs, Vazquez stepped in and roped a fastball to center field to drive in Tyson Auer and Dwayne Bailey. Robert Lara singled a few pitches later to score Ryan Richardson and cut UCF's deficit to 4-3.

The Herd (19-19-1, 7-7-1) didn't let any momentum that the Knights had last long as Houck struggled again at the start of the bottom of the third.

Lape walked on four pitches to open the inning, which was followed by Johnson's sixth home run of the year, giving Marshall a 6-3 lead. Houck gave up three more hits in the inning, including an RBI double by Victor Gomez, before his day came to an end. He allowed seven runs in 2.1 innings.

The Knights added two runs the seventh on Richardson's two-run double, and scored a run in the ninth. But it was too little too late for UCF. Vazquez made the final out in both of those innings. He went 1-for-5 with two RBIs and two strikeouts.

Marshall starting pitcher Steve Blevins didn't have a very pretty line, but he lasted seven innings and picked up the win. He allowed 10 hits and five runs, but also had seven strikeouts.

Bailey tallied three hits and three runs scored for the Knights. Lape was the Herd's top hitter Saturday, with two hits, two runs scored and two RBIs.

UCF relief pitcher Evan Stobbs pitched a career-high 4.1 innings and racked up four strikeouts while allowing just one earned run.

UCF's relievers were fairly decent in the first two games of the series. In Friday's series opener, the Knights' bullpen allowed four earned runs in the final six innings. That would have been good enough for them to pull out a win - if starting pitcher Cody Allen hadn't allowed six earned runs before the end of the third inning.

Friday's game was offensively wild as the teams combined to have three innings with five runs or more. The first of those innings came in the bottom of the third when Laspe walked with the bases loaded for the first run and third walk of the inning. After an error by third baseman Chris Duffy let another run come home, Johnson ripped a three-run double down the left-field line to put the Herd up 6-2.

That was the last batter Allen faced on the afternoon. Allen, in his just his second career start with the Knights and first weekend start, allowed seven runs - six earned - on four hits and three walks.

Duffy tried to make up for his mistake in the field when he led off the fourth inning with his fourth homer of the season. One batter later, Auer doubled into the left-center field gap and crossed home thanks to a two-out single by Bailey to make the score 7-4.

The Knights loaded the bases in the fifth, only to see that opportunity erased when Stobbs grounded into an inning-ending double play.

But the Knights bided their time and took the lead in the sixth inning with five runs on six hits. The inning was highlighted by an RBI double from Lara and run-scoring singles from Bailey, Kallstrom and Duffy.

Yet, the Herd struck right back in the bottom of the inning with five runs of their own. They tied the game at 9-9 on a couple of RBI singles, but with the bases loaded and one out, Kurt Lipton smoked a pitch into the right-center field gap to give the Herd what would be a decisive 12-9 lead.

Kyle Sweat pitched the final 2.2 innings for the Knights and didn't permit a run. Sweat had been UCF's Friday night starter for past few weeks, but the team's coaches decided to give Allen the start so that Sweat could get some rest before the season's stretch run.

The first six hitters in UCF's lineup had at least two hits each Friday. Arnold and Richardson had three hits each, and Lara drove in three runs. Lipton and Johnson combined to drive in seven runs for the Herd.

Along with the 45 hits, a team should expect to win at least one game when it scores 25 combined runs in a three-game series. But, there has been one glaring problem.

"We have the ability to score a lot of runs and have big innings; we just have got to get our starting pitching to do something," Bergman said in a press release.

UCF will have the upcoming week to straighten out its problems as the Knights won't play a mid-week game for the first time this season. Yet, even with home-field advantage on their side, the going won't get any easier this weekend for the Knights. They'll have to play a three-game series against No. 6 Rice (29-10, 11-2).

(C) 2008 Central Florida Future via UWIRE