Weech

UCF senior baseball players Shane Brown, Chris Duffy, Matt Goodyear, Matt Manning and Cory Weech will make their final home appearances as Knights on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. against Florida Atlantic (31-19) at Jay Bergman Field.

Shane Brown (Photo by J.C. Carnahan)

Following that outing – with a 31-21 overall record and currently sitting at No. 9 in the Conference USA standings at 8-13 – UCF will be looking to sneak into the conference tournament’s field of six as they go on the road for a three-game series against Tulane later this week (Thursday-Saturday).

The Knights are currently looking up at Tulane (9-12 in C-USA), Houston (9-12), UAB (10-11) and East Carolina (10-11) in the conference standings.

UCF last won 31 games in a season in 2008 and are on pace to finish with its best overall record since going 42-18 in 2005 as members of the Atlantic Sun.

Not bad for the only program in the country (as of May 17) to have five true freshmen make at least 35 starts in 2010.

On Sunday, Duffy tied the UCF single-season record for home runs in a season when he connected on his 18th of the year against East Carolina. That matches the 18 long-balls hit by Dee Brown in 2005 and puts him in a tie at No. 3 all-time with Vince Zawaski (1985-88) with 40 career homers to his credit.

Bobby Kiser hit 43 home runs from 1987-90 while Dustin Brisson hit 41 from 1997-00.

Chris Duffy (Photo by J.C. Carnahan)

Seems to be just another day at the office for Duffy.

“That was awesome. I try not to think about it, but I’m hoping to get one or two more. Every time I go up to the plate I just try to hit it hard,” said Duffy. “I talk to (Dee Brown) all of the time, and sometimes he’s up in the cages. He was a draft pick and played in the minors so we talk about that a lot. But we’ve never really talked about hitting home runs. He did tell me he hit 18 once but I never really thought about it.”

Those dingers from Duffy this year have also helped the Knights set a new single-season home run record as a team with 70 in all. Last season the Knights went yard 68 times.

– Chris Duffy –

The Cypress Creek High School alum leads the team with a .436 batting average on 85 hits and a .805 slugging percentage with 71 RBI, 50 runs scored, 18 home runs and 16 doubles in 52 games played. Duffy ranks first in C-USA in batting average, on-base percentage, and RBI, and is second in slugging percentage, hits and total bases.

– Shane Brown –

The Winter Park High school alum has been nearly just as impressive with a .423 batting average on 82 hits and a .660 slugging percentage with 49 runs scored, 42 RBI, 19 doubles and nine home runs in 49 games. The senior owns a lifetime batting average of .360 with 24 home runs and 57 doubles. Brown leads C-USA in hit-by-pitches, is second in on-base percentage and doubles, and third in batting average.

Manning

– Matt Manning –

The Melbourne native out of Brevard Community College made 20 appearances on the mound and went 1-0, struck out 19 over 23 innings of work, and gave up 24 hits and 15 earned runs this season while completing four save opportunities.

Goodyear

– Matt Goodyear –

The Melbourne native made two starts on the mound and four appearances in all this year. Through 8.1 innings of work he allowed 11 hits and eight earned runs while striking out four batters. Considered a vocal leader, in four seasons he appeared in 23 games.

– Cory Weech –

The Southwest Ranches native out of Broward College made eight appearances on the mound and struck out six over 5.2 innings while giving up five hits and four earned runs this year. As a junior in 2009 he led the team with 27 pitching appearances, which ranks fifth most in a single season in program history.

– (Contact Orlando Sports Central at JC@OrlandoSportsCentral.com) –