After taking two out of three games against the ninth-ranked Louisville Cardinals this past weekend, the UCF Knights baseball team is ranked in the national polls for the first team this season.

The series win vaulted the Knights up to No. 22 in the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper rankings.

“They should be extremely proud of the way they played this weekend,” said Knights head coach Terry Rooney. “Every weekend you go into it and the bottom line is you try to win the series. They won the series against an outstanding Louisville team that was ranked in the top 10 in the country and they did a great job.”

While the Knights have played well winning 18 out of their last 23 games, Rooney says the team will continue to take the season one game at a time.

“I don’t think we approach it any different,” said Rooney. “Everybody is aware of where we are, but there is a lot of baseball left. We just need to keep playing one game at a time and one pitch at a time.”

In addition to the national ranking, the Knights were also rewarded when pitcher Eric Skoglund took home the conference’s pitcher of the week award for a conference-high fourth time.

Skoglund pitched 8.2 innings on Thursday, picking up his sixth win of the season while allowing just four hits and striking out seven.

The Knights resume American Athletic Conference play this weekend for three games against Rutgers.

(Taken from April 23, 2014 issue)