BY WILLIAM PERRY – CENTRAL FLORIDA FUTURE
At UCF baseball’s annual media day today, head coach Terry Rooney and the Knights met with the media at the team’s home park to discuss Friday’s start to the 2010 season.
“We’re certainly excited as a team about Friday night,” Rooney said. “These kids have been working extremely hard to put themselves in this position. I’m so excited about this group.”
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To go along with 14 returning players for the 2010 season, UCF brought in 21 newcomers to claim the No. 4 recruiting class in the country. And Rooney fully expects those newcomers to have an immediate impact.
The Knights’ projected starting lineup for Opening Day Friday and the team’s three-game series versus Savannah State will consist of at least five newcomers in the batting order as well as three junior college transfers in the weekend rotation.
C: So. Beau Taylor
1B: Jr. Jonathan Griffin, JUCO transfer from State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota
2B: Fr. Austin Johnston
SS: Fr. Darnell Sweeney
3B: Jr. Derek Luciano, JUCO transfer from State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota
LF: Sr. Chris Duffy
CF: Fr. Ronnie Richardson
RF: Sr. Shane Brown
DH: TBA
Friday’s starter: Owen Dew, JUCO transfer from Seminole State College, Tallahassee
Saturday’s starter: Johnny Sedlock, JUCO transfer from South Florida Community College
Sunday’s starter: Nick Cicio, JUCO transfer from Community College of Baltimore County Catonsville, Ma.
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First time first day starter
Junior College transfer Owen Dew gets the ball Friday for not only his first opening day start but his first start at the Division-1 level.
“You know, I’m not going to lie, I’m kind of nervous, making my first collegiate start,” Dew said. “But once I get out on that mound, it’s all going to go away. It’s what I’ve done for so long that I can go out there and pitch against whomever. I’m excited of the opportunity I have.”
Dew is a pitcher who doesn’t walk many batters and likes to change speeds and hit his spots to get groundballs. He throws a fastball (88-91 mph), slider and a changeup.
Last season, Dew threw 91.1 innings in 14 starts, picking up eight wins, four complete games and 81 strikeouts and was drafted in the 33rd round by the L.A. Angels in the 2009 MLB Draft.
Retooled staff
In 2009, UCF’s struggles started and closed on the mound.
The Knights’ pitching staff had a combined earned-run average of almost 7.5 last season, ranking them 252 of 288 teams, a stat head coach Terry Rooney deemed extremely unacceptable.
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To make sure those numbers wouldn’t repeat, Rooney made a conscious effort to upgrade the talent pool of the team’s pitching staff because he felt pitching was the No. 1 area the team needed to improve. 11 of the Knights’ 21 newcomers are pitchers, six of which came from junior college.
“It doesn’t matter what level you’re at, from high school to the major leagues,” Rooney said. “If you want to win, you’ve got to pitch, and we needed to get better. I feel like we’ve done that this year.”
Legs in the lineup
As a team, the Knights stole just 24 bases last year, but the additions of freshmen Ronnie Richardson and Darnell Sweeney promise to bring a whole lot more speed on the base paths.
“Those two guys are two of the fastest players on our team, two of the best base runners on our team and two of the most dynamic, highly-touted recruits to show up on this campus,” Rooney said. “That’s a good place to start there on the top and the bottom [of the lineup].”
But having speed on the bases won’t just give the Knights more opportunities to swipe some bags, it also promises to be exceedingly beneficial for the Knights’ run producers.
“They’re going to be able to steal a lot of bags and get into scoring position without having to move them over or hit the ball by getting base hits,” said Shane Brown, who will hit in the middle of the order. “So, for them to be able to steal bags to get into to position for us to drive them in, that’s big.”
