Pirates Fall to UCF in 12-Inning Heartbreaker
February 21, 2003 | Baseball
ORLANDO, Fla. -- A one-out, RBI single by Central Florida's Rich Wallace in the 12th inning lifted the Golden Knights to a 4-3 win over visiting East Carolina on Friday night at Jay Bergman Field.
The dramatic ending capped a long game, nearly four hours in length, which saw both teams come up with key defensive stops and clutch pitching, and included a 17-minute rain delay.
Wallace's heroics spoiled a solid relief outing by ECU's Glenn Tucker (1-1), who pitched 4.2 innings in relief of starter Neal Sears. Tucker pitched out of bases-loaded jams in the eighth and ninth innings, but gave up a leadoff single to J.P. Lehmann to start the 12th, then a one-out walk, before Wallace lined the game-winning hit into left center field to bring Lehmann home.
"We played hard. I'll never, ever fault these guys' effort," ECU head coach Randy Mazey said. "We're trying to play guys that have never played before and the more experience they get in games like this, the better they'll do in similar situations in the future. We're going to be fine as soon as we figure this offensive thing out. Once we settle on a lineup, we'll start winning games like this."
It was the second straight one-run game the Pirates (3-2) have dropped. All five of ECU's games to date have been decided by two or less runs.
UCF, which was swept by the Pirates in last season's three-game series in Greenville, improves to 4-3.
Friday's game started as a pitcher's dual between UCF's Von David Stertzbach and ECU's Sears. Blaine Schulte broke up a scoreless game with a two-run home run in the seventh inning. Those were the only two runs Sears allowed in going 6.2 innings and yielding five hits. Stertzbach, meanwhile, scattered four hits over 6.2 scoreless innings.
The Pirates came right back with a pair of runs of their own in the top of the eighth. Kevin O'Sullivan led off with a double, pinch-hitter Ben Sanderson drew a walk, and Luke Cherry sacrificed both runners up. Ryan Jones then followed with a soft grounder that slipped through the right side of the infield to bring both runners home.
Central Florida broke the tie again in the bottom of the eighth on an RBI single from Wallace.
Again, ECU responded in the very next frame to tie the game. Mark Minicozzi led off with a single and, one out later, Darryl Lawhorn brought him home with an RBI hit.
UCF came within inches of ending the game in the bottom of the ninth inning. With runners on first and second and one out, David Mann hit a sharp single to short center field which was fielded by Jones. A strong throw to the plate by Jones held the runners, but when the throw sailed over the head of ECU catcher John Poppert, pinch runner Jason Wagenheim took off for home plate. Poppert chased the ball down at the backstop and fired it to Tucker, who tagged a sliding Wagenheim on the helmet for the out. Tucker got out of the inning by intentionally walking Lehmann and striking out Dee Brown.
The Pirates had their own potential go-ahead runner thrown out at the plate in the top of the 10th. With runners on second and third with only one out, Ryan Norwood lofted a fly bgall to short center field. UCF's Clay Timpner made the catch and threw a perfect strike to home plate in plenty of time to nail Sanderson, who had walked to lead off the inning.
Kyle Bonon, the Golden Knights' fifth pitcher of the game, was credited with the win after holding the Pirates to one hit and no runs over the final 2.2 innings.
Game two of the three-game series is set for Saturday at 1 p.m.
Postgame Notes:
