Diamond Pirates Fall to UCF, 7-2
February 23, 2003 | Baseball
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Central Florida scored often and early and coasted to a 7-2 victory over East Carolina in non-conference college baseball action Sunday at Jay Bergman Field.
The Golden Knights (5-4) jumped on ECU starter Davey Penny (0-2) by scoring six runs on five hits in the first two innings. In the first, Blaine Schulte brought home two runs with a double and Ryan Bear had an RBI single to make it 3-0. UCF doubled that in the following inning when Clay Timpner drove home two with a triple and then scored on a sacrifice fly by Rich Wallace.
Another triple, this time by Ryan Bono off ECU reliever Scott Greene, coupled with a sacrifice fly by Dee Brown made it a 7-0 UCF lead in the third inning.
That was more than enough offense for UCF starter Taylor Cobb, who improved to 1-0 by shutting out the Pirates for six innings. Cobb scattered six hits--all singles--as the Pirates stranded nine runners on base during the first six innings.
ECU, which dropped two of the three games in Orlando this weekend, falls to 4-3.
The Pirates finally broke through on the scoreboard in the seventh when UCF reliever Matt Fox walked leadoff batter Kevin O'Sullivan, who later came around to score on a wild pitch to cut the lead to 7-1. ECU made it 7-2 later that inning when Darryl Lawhorn scored on a sacrifice fly by Mark Minicozzi.
However, Fox settled in and completed the game without allowing another baserunner from that point on and earned his second save.
Timpner was 3-for-5 with two RBI to lead the Golden Knights at the plate.
ECU's Jamie Paige was 2-for-3 to pace the Pirate offense.
The Pirates return home to host Elon on Wednesday at 3 p.m.
Postgame Notes
