UCF Baseball Signs 14 for the 2009 Season
Nov. 20, 2007
ORLANDO, Fla. (www.ucfathletics.com) - With the early signing period in full swing, the UCF baseball team announced Tuesday that it signed 14 players to National Letters of Intent and they will begin donning the Black & Gold uniform for the 2009 season. "This is by far one of the best recruiting classes we have had here at UCF," said 26th-year head coach Jay Bergman. "I give a lot of praise to coach Craig Cozart and coach Bryan Peters for their continuous hard work in targeting these players." Part of that class is five players from Winter Springs High School. The Bears posted a 26-2 record a year ago and was ranked as the 12th-best team in the country according to Baseball America. "That was nerve-racking for us getting five guys from the same school," said Peters. "We actually beat our heads together as a coaching staff, saying `can we really get these five guys.' Now you look at it and can say there were still two other guys on that team that have the potential to be Division I players as well. Winter Springs is definitely going to be one of the top high school teams in the nation this year." "All five guys didn't commit at the same time," added Cozart. "It was a process of us evaluating them as individual players and once it got to the point that we realized there were all of these Division I-type guys on this team, then our number (of recruits) grew." Meanwhile, all 14 players are Florida natives. "I think with coach Peters' connections in the Tampa, St. Petersburg and Lakeland area and our long-term connections here in the Orlando area, our goal as a staff has been to try to dominate that region from Tampa to Orlando and down to Melbourne," said Cozart. "And if we are able to get a majority of the players that we are interested in year in and year out from those three areas, then we should be able to field a competitive team every year."
Here's an in-depth look at each addition to the UCF program, as well as comments from Cozart, the Knights' recruiting coordinator and pitching coach, and Peters, UCF's hitting coach. UCF Baseball's Signing Class Bryan Brown - RHP Craig Cozart: "Bryan Brown is the essence of a pitcher. We've seen him pitch on three-consecutive days and not lose anything. We've seen him start and go into the sixth and seventh innings and not lose his stuff. He truly understands what he is as a pitcher. He isn't going to wow you with his velocity and will pitch in the mid to upper 80s. He's got tremendous sink and is a ground-ball pitcher. He throws his slider in any count, has a workable change-up and comes from a low three-quarter slot which give him a lot of deception. He's got great command and understanding of what he's got to do on the mound, which will put him in a position to fit into a variety of rolls for us, anything from the rotation to the back end of the bullpen. So he's a guy that can be a factor right away." Anthony Figliolia - RHP/INF Craig Cozart: "Anthony will be another two-way player for us. Arguably, he will be one of the best defensive infielders that we have ever had. His hands are golden and even though he is 6-foot-2 and 195 pounds, he has legitimate range and his arm strength will back it up. The stick will play and that's what will determine what he does for us on the position player side. But he will literally wow you with what he does defensively. We've seen him make Brooks Robinson-type plays at third. On the mound he has made huge strides. He was the co-MVP of the World Wood Bat tournament in the summer. He is very aggressive and will come right at you. He can run it up there to 91 mph. His outpitch is his slider, which right now plays at this level. I've seen it up to 83 mph and it's a swing and miss power breaking ball that will put him in a position to do a variety of things for us. He's a guy that is very strong and energetic. He's a field rat who loves to be on the baseball field." Wesley Freeman - OF Bryan Peters: "Wesley Freeman is probably one of the most publicized guys we have ever had. He was an Aflac All-American and highly rated by Perfect Game USA. We are talking about a 6-foot-5, middle of the order hitter who can really run. His best tool, surprisingly with his 6-foot-5 frame, is that he has speed. He is a five-tool player with arm strength, big-time power, exceptional speed and good batting average and defensive skills. This is a high-caliber, high-class guy whose ceiling is really high. Just a phenomenal player." D.J. Hicks - 1B Bryan Peters: "We are talking about a middle of the order guy who is over 6-foot-5 and a left-handed hitter. He has the potential to play first base and I compared him to John Olerud the first time I saw him. He is that type of a pure hitter that has the ability to hit for power. He is pretty smooth and graceful in everything he does. Those two qualities are some of his best attributes in his game. DJ is intimidating in the dugout all of the way to when he steps into the batter's box. He could be a big factor for us." Graham Hicks - LHP Craig Cozart: "A 6-foot-4 left-handed pitcher that has got an unbelievable amount of potential left in him, even though his stuff is ready right now. He could walk on campus and pitch in our rotation immediately. He's going to pitch comfortably, from 88-89 mph and we've seen him run it up to 90-91. He has developed a slider that is just unhittable right now. He pitched down in Lakeland at the Florida Diamond Club and punched out all six guys that he faced. He runs it in on righties and away on lefties, both are equally effective. He's got a change-up and a curveball and he's a true four-pitch guy, which is very rare to say that you are bringing in a four-pitch guy onto campus. He loves to play the game and it's really fun to watch Graham Hicks pitch because he has such enthusiasm with a care-free attitude even though he is a great competitor. He is a very, very polished left-handed pitcher at this point." Jake Huxtable - INF Bryan Peters: "Jake's going to be your bulldog college player. He's limited to second base but that's a perfect spot for him. He has the potential to be an offensive second baseman. That's not saying he's not going to play good defense because he has really improved in the field. He is a gritty, gutty, ratty college player who gets dirty and works hard. He will be a bulldog for all four years in college baseball. He wasn't signed, sealed and delivered just because his dad is part of the football coaching staff. It was a pretty good battle to get him." Jamie Mallard - 1B/DH Bryan Peters: "Jamie Mallard probably has the most power I have ever seen in terms of recruiting. He has the type of power that in BP both teams stop what they are doing and they watch how far he hits the ball. He hit a home run out of Tropicana Field in Tampa at 13 years old. And it shows up in the games too, he's not just a five o'clock hitter. Hand Size, hand speed and bat speed equal big power with Jamie. And he moves well for his frame of 250 pounds. He has soft hands, is agile and has plenty of arm strength." Noah Piard - RHP Craig Cozart: "Noah is another stocky body who is not your prototypical power pitcher as far as physical size goes. But he is a prototypical power pitcher when it comes to his stuff. Another sinkerballer who can run it in at 88-89 mph and we've seen him get it up to 92. He stays in the bottom of the zone relentlessly to get his ground balls. He throws a quality breaking pitch that is somewhere between a slider and curveball so we can call it a slurve. He shows an occasional change-up. Noah is a tremendous but quiet competitor. He's a guy that when you see him out there on the mound, he's stoic and emotionless. You know when you put him on the mound that you will be in every game. And he will be another guy that will see significant time as a freshman." Jordan Rasinski - RHP Craig Cozart: "Jordan Rasinski is a right-hander out of Winter Springs who we have seen for a very, very long time. We saw him as a sophomore run the ball up to 93 mph on the mound, but he wasn't a pitcher at that time. He has been able to evolve into where he understands what it means to truly pitch. He's content to throw the ball at 88 or 89, but when he needs to, he can dial it up to 92. He has a good swing-and-miss breaking ball and a workable change-up. He's a three-pitch guy with a strong body that has a tremendous amount of resilience in his arm. If we talk about players of the past, he reminds me of Justin Pope because he's a smaller kid in terms of pitching, but he's got good downward tilt despite his lack of height on the mound. He's a ground ball pitcher that can get the swing and miss when he needs to." Matt Richardson - INF/RHP Craig Cozart: "Matt is another one in a long line of two-way players that we have recruited at UCF. He's got tremendous upside on the mound and he's only been pitching for a little over a year. He's got tremendous arm strength and runs the ball between 88 and 92 mph on the mound with a good breaking ball. He's just beginning to realize his potential on the mound. He will have the opportunity to swing the bat for us as well and compete at a couple of different infield positions. Historically he reminds us of Matt Fox who came here as a middle infielder and a right-handed pitcher and eventually developed into a first-round pick." Jacob Rogers - INF Bryan Peters: "Another physical force. We are talking about a 6-foot-5, left-handed hitting infielder who could also play the outfield. He has really legitimate power and is really strong with his bat speed. He will hit for a high average...He's as big time and as prime as they get right now. He's going to play more on the left side of the infield, and normally at 6-foot-5 you don't normally see that. But he follows in the Cal Ripken mold. In UCF history, he reminds me of Matt Bowser in terms of numbers. He has that kind of power with a fluid swing that looks pretty." Austin Smith - OF Bryan Peters: "Austin Smith is fun to watch. He's got it all and is physically put together for his frame. He's got real power potential but will be a lead-off type of guy. So he's got speed and throws and hits left-handed. Definitely a potential center fielder as he can go get them in the outfield. We really liked his aptitude and the way he adjusted. When he can put it all together, which he is going to, he will have the power, speed, arm strength and the defense to compete at the college level. So athletic and fun are words that come to mind when I see him. Things just come really easy to him." Beau Taylor - Catcher Bryan Peters: "Beau Taylor will give me a run for my money when I say that B.J. Zimmerman (profile below) is the most pure hitter because Beau is right up there too. He really is the sleeper of the group because a lot of people haven't seen him. We have a story with him because we had to go back over and over again to prove to ourselves that he was as good as we thought he was. We literally couldn't think that he could be this good. So Cozart went back and said, `Yeah, he is that good.' And I went back and said, `Yeah, he is that good.' But Beau is another left-handed hitter which is a commodity for a catcher to hit from the left side. He doesn't swing and miss a lot and when he does swing, he squares it up. It could be left center or right center, and we've seen him hit some home runs. He's a lefty with a good approach at the plate and that translates into a high average with gap power." B.J. Zimmerman - OF Bryan Peters: "B.J. is probably the purest hitter out of this whole group. He isn't as big and doesn't have as much foot speed, but in terms of being a pure hitter, he squares everything up. He can hit a backspin line drive to left center just as easily as he can burn the right fielder down the line. He doesn't swing and miss much, and his batting practices are beautiful to watch. He is just a pure, line-drive hitter and we liked him because he did it off everybody." For the latest news and information on the Knights, tickets or apparel log on to www.ucfathletics.com - the official site for UCF varsity sports. Also check out UCFPhotos.com, the exclusive fan source for UCF action sports pictures. |
