The USSSA Florida Pride concluded its regular season this past weekend, taking three out of four games from the Akron Racers at the UCF Softball Complex. The Pride finished with a 28-20 mark and is the No. 2 seed in the NPF Championship Series this weekend in Sulphur, Louisiana.
Earlier this month at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg former UCF catcher Drew Butera made his return to the Sunshine State as the Minnesota Twins visited the Tampa Bay Rays, just 121 miles away from Jay Bergman Field, where Butera made his home from 2003-05.
A week after suffering a gut-wrenching loss at home, the Orlando Predators bounced back with their best performance of the season. The Preds blew out the league’s best team, the Jacksonville Sharks, 70-48 in front of a season-high 14,010 at Amway Arena.
Later this week the College World Series begins, on Saturday, June 19. And while area teams such as UCF and Stetson will not be taking part, it doesn’t mean Central Florida players have been left out. Florida and Florida State have a combined eight locals on baseball rosters.
On a day where Knights fans hoped to see coach Kirk Speraw earn the school record for most wins, UTEP guard Randy Culpepper hit nine 3-pointers to tie a C-USA record as the Miners shot UCF out of their own arena 96-59 in front of 6,413.
In front of the second-largest crowd in school history the UCF basketball team could not hold off Marshall in the second half Wednesday night as they fell, 81-75. UCF led the Conference USA matchup, 44-35, at intermission but the season-high 19 points from freshman Marcus Jordan was not enough.
The Heat had many reasons to be thankful on the eve of Thanksgiving, particularly once a Dwyane Wade air ball was dunked by Michael Beasley with 1.6 seconds left in the game. That concluded a Heat comeback from an 11-point deficit as the Magic were edged 99-98.
It was a successful week for Kirk Speraw’s UCF basketball team as they own three of four games and finished things off at the Glenn Wilkes Classic with a 59-50 win over Drake on Sunday in Daytona Beach.
It was a roller coaster week for the Orlando Magic off the court, but on the court they were on a roll. After falling to Cleveland, then having no problem knocking off New Jersey, the Magic won four more while returning one all-star to the lineup but losing another in the process.