Knights into NCAA regionals

Pitcher Nick Cicio struck out nine out of 10 batters during the Knights’ shocking run through the Conference USA Championship. Now UCF’s baseball team is headed to the NCAA Regional Tournament this week.

The Knights had battled their way from the bottom of the conference up to a tie in the middle of the ladder heading into the postseason, but at the C-USA championships they exploded, scoring 22 runs in their first two games as they easily beat Memphis and came back against UAB in the first and second round.

Jonathan Griffin went on a tear in the first two games, hammering in six RBIs to help his team to victory. He hit his 16th double of the season and 17th homerun in the first game. In the Knights’ 16-9 blowout against Memphis in the first round, Griffin, Erik Hempe and Ryan Breen all had three RBIs.

In the Knights’ nail-biter comeback victory against UAB, they picked up four runs late in the game to overcome the Blazers’ early lead. And it all came to fruition on Griffin’s three-run center field blast in the eighth inning.

The big stars of that game were on the mound for the Knights. Danny Winkler struck out seven in five innings before handing the ball over to middle reliever Nick Cicio, who struck out an incredible nine batters out of 10 faced while the Knights’ offense built a comeback. Joe Rogers came in to close in the ninth, fanning two batters out of three to seal the victory.

But against Rice in the championship, the Knights had trouble generating any runs. They did get out to a meager lead early with a bizarre series of errors followed by a D.J. Hicks RBI single.

But after that, the Knights’ offense slowed to a crawl and couldn’t build any more momentum in the later innings. Meanwhile Rice added some runs on some deep fly balls and took the lead until the end.

At noon Friday, the Knights (38-21) travel to Tallahassee to face the Alabama Crimson Tide in the NCAA Regional. That’s good news for the Knights, who flummoxed the Tide in a crushing 12-4 win at the South Alabama Classic early in the season. Even better, the Tide (33-26) are coming off their worst game of the season, held to just two hits in a 4-1 loss against Arkansas.