USF Baseball Takes on UCF

The Bulls, 14-7 on the year, remain at home as they host the 19th ranked UCF Knights in another key game before the start of Big East play. 

UCF is 16-5 on the year, coming off of a sweep of Harvard over the weekend.  UCF beat USF earlier this season, winning 12 to 1 on their home field.  The Bulls will be looking for a little revenge in this game (game starts at 7PM). 

UCF is led by junior catcher Chris Taladay (6-1 215-pounds) who is batting .357 with 1 home run and 17 RBIs on the year.  Senior infielder Travis Shreve (5-10 170-pounds) is batting .350 with 11 RBIs and has 5 steals on the year (out of 10 attempts).  Senior outfielder Alex Friedrich (5-11 185-pounds) is batting .347 with 1 home run, 16 RBIs, and has 6 steals on the season.  Junior infielder D.J. Hicks (6-5 250-pounds) is the big time slugger in their order.  He is batting .338 with 6 home runs and has 31 RBIs.  Junior infielder Darnell Sweeney (6-0 170-pounds) is batting .278 with 1 home run and has 10 RBIs to round out their loaded batting order. 

The pitching rotation is led by freshman LHP Eric Skoglund (6-7 175-pounds) who is 3-0 on the year (3.46 ERA) while working 23 innings, allowing 21 hits, 8 walks, and has struck out 24 batters.  Sophomore RHP Ben Lively (6-4 205-pounds) is 3-0 (3.46 ERA) while tossing 26 innings, 22 hits, 15 walks, and has struck out 33 batters.  Junior LHP Joe Rogers (6-1 200-pounds) is 1-0 on the year with 6 saves, working 14.2 innings, allowing 9 hits and struck out 18 batters, making life hard in late inning situations.  Junior RHP Roman Madrid (6-1 200-pounds) is 2-2 with 14.1 innings under his belt, allowing 6 walks and has struck out 19 batters. 

The Bulls will need to be at their best in this game.  The offense has been clicking well recently and the starting pitching is doing well, backed up by the strong bullpen.  With the home crowd behind them, look for the Bulls to make a statement in this game.