UCF baseball coach Greg Lovelady knew they had a talented roster, but with so many newcomers and others playing in new roles, he wasn't sure how quickly it would come together.
The group grew up quickly last weekend at Auburn. The Knights dominated in the three-game set, outscoring the top-10 Tigers to the tune of 22-6 with a slew of standout performances on the mound, at the plate and in the field.
Now UCF is ranked with a No. 19 slotting by D1Baseball.com.
"I'm proud of them," Lovelady said. "For as inexperienced as we are especially offensively, I thought we handled ourselves extremely well. Just very mature at-bats. Mature in terms of how we went about our process and prepared. I think we're a lot further along. I thought we'd get there because of the talent that we had. The staff has done a great job of preparing our kids. Jeremy Fradin, our strength coach, has done a tremendous job of building the culture and being at the forefront of that in the weight room all fall. And the players have really bought in. They've helped build the culture.
"We were prepared. I thought (our hitting coaches) Andy (Barkett) and Ted (Tom) did an unbelievable job preparing for those Auburn arms. Our offense really bought into it. Obviously Nick (Otte) did a tremendous job of preparing the pitchers. Those guys obviously set the tone. So having the experience on the mound definitely helps. If you can pitch, you've got a chance to win every single game. Those guys bringing what they did on the mound really set the tone for the entire weekend. Colton (Gordon) started that.
"Great game planning. Great execution. Great energy. That comes from a lot of different things, culture and the players really wanting this. Buying into everything that we're doing. Definitely a little earlier than I thought. I thought we'd need a little bit more seasoning to get that feel and really understand, but it's a testament to a lot of different people. We challenged them on Tuesday that we've got to come out every day and prove this is right. That this isn't a fluke. We won that series. We did. But you've got to continually remind everybody of that. The season doesn't end now. The regionals aren't this weekend. We've got 12 more weekends of having to prove ourselves."
For as good as the early pitching has been (2.00 ERA after nine games), Lovelady said it could get even better.
"If we stay healthy, we can get deeper with Zack Helsel coming back (from injury), Nolan Lepkoske and guys getting more experience like Hunter Patteson and Nick Gotilla, plus Joe Sheridan getting healthier and more confident along with Ryan Saltonstall. That will take some heat off us and keep us deep and experienced."
He's also encouraged by the early hitting numbers.
"We had very few overswings the whole entire weekend," Lovelady said. "We stayed within ourselves. We stayed within the game plan. Trying to hit the ball hard and make good contact. When you do that, that's what ends up happening. You're able to hit those shots."
Lovelady spoke about many more topics during the 18-minute interview (video above), including the big improvement of Jordan Rathbone, closer Jeffrey Hakanson stepping up with back-to-back saves, the challenge of playing Cal State Northridge, the proposed new transfer rule and more. I'll have more on his comments regarding the transer rule next week.
As for scheduling CSUN, Lovelady said it just so happened CSUN was available and willing to travel to Orlando this weekend. They decided to play some early doubleheaders (including one this Saturday) in order to avoid playing double midweek games once conference play starts.
CSUN (7-0) is off to a hot start under new coach Dave Serrano, who brings a wealth of experience and history of success to the Matadors' program. CSUN opened the season with a sweep of San Francisco, beat Washington State in a midweek game and stayed perfect with victories against Fordham and Grand Canyon (twice) in a tournament last weekend.
"You look back at the last 15 years and (Serrano) is one of the best coaches in college baseball," Lovelady said. "He took UC Irvine to a World Series, Cal State Fullerton to a World Series. They're an older team, especially on the mound. They're going to be really scrappy. Dave obviously has them playing really well right now. They've got some older arms with different looks. Velocity guys and guys with good off-speed stuff, can change arm angles. They've also got experience. They've competed before. They've been in this type of atmosphere. They won't be scared or nervous on the mound. Offensively, they've got some big, physical guys that can hit. It's going to be good, tough competition. We've just got to worry about ourselves and playing the same way. We always talk about playing a faceless opponent and not worrying about the jersey."
