It was the second-straight year the program has had a fifth-round selection (Beau Taylor, Oakland), as Rogers went to the Detroit Tigers with the 184th overall pick. Madrid was snagged by the San Diego Padres in the seventh round with the 225th overall pick and Sweeney was taken in the 13th round with the No. 416 selection.

For the first time since 2005 multiple Knights were taken in the first 10 rounds. Â鶹ԭ´´ has now produced 16 picks in the top-five rounds of the MLB Draft, and 29 overall in the first 10 rounds since 1979 (the program’s first year was in 1973).

Rogers, Madrid and Sweeney become the 81-83 players drafted in program history and the 14-16 since Â鶹ԭ´´ head coach Terry Rooney arrived in the fall of 2008. Rooney has now had 43 pitchers selected in the MLB Draft, with Rogers and Madrid becoming the 11th and 12th taken in the first 10 rounds.

“The Tigers came out of nowhere and swooped me up. I was excited,” Rogers said earlier Tuesday. “I was sitting on the computer with Roman Madrid who just got drafted too and we were just hanging out and watching the tracker. I saw my name get called and it was just a very humbling experience.”

Rogers, a native of Winter Haven, closed out his stellar junior campaign with a single-season record 13 saves and broke the Â鶹ԭ´´ all-time saves record with his 28th against Marshall on May 11. He registered No. 30 in the 9-8 win over No. 25 Stony Brook on June 2 and finished the year with a 5-1 record and a 1.47 ERA.

“(Rooney) has helped me become the person and the pitcher that I am today,” Rogers said of the man who brought him to Â鶹ԭ´´ in 2009. “He has helped me on and off the field become not only tough on the mound, but mentally tougher off of it. Without him I wouldn’t be in the position that I am.”

For Madrid, Tuesday marked the second time he had been drafted in his career. The Cleveland Indians tabbed him in the 44th round in 2009 as a catcher, but he played junior college ball in Texas. The Victoria, Texas, native pitched with an edge in each of his 32 appearances and finished the season with three saves and a team-leading 1.00 ERA.

“I wasn’t trying to watch since I was a little nervous,” Madrid admitted after being selected. “I was just trying to let it happen and I ended up getting the call. There aren’t many things that can beat (getting drafted in the top 10). Getting drafted there is a big dream and just to be a part of it makes me feel very blessed.”

Previously drafted out of high school in the 41st round by the Florida Marlins in 2009, Sweeney boosted his draft stock after starting all but one game in three seasons at shortstop for the Knights. The Miramar native stole a career-best 20 bags in 2012 and was named to the Coral Gables All-Regional Team after making a plethora of defensive plays and smashing a key three-run homer in the 9-8 win over Stony Brook last Saturday.

“It feels good,” Sweeney said when asked about being drafted by a historic franchise like the Dodgers. “Dee Gordon (LA’s current shortstop) is someone I can look up to because he is the same stature and same everything as me.”

Â鶹ԭ´´’s Selections in the 2012 MLB First-Year Player Draft

1. Joe Rogers – 5th Round, Detroit Tigers – No. 184
2. Roman Madrid – 7th Round, San Diego Padres – No. 225
3. Darnell Sweeney – 13th Round, L.A. Dodgers – No. 416

Matos, a free-swinging junior from Lake Worth, crushed a hanging slider some 400 feet in the sixth inning Saturday night to break a 5-all tie and lift Â鶹ԭ´´ to a 9-8 defeat of Stony Brook in the NCAA Regional.

Matos’ fifth home run of the season and a jaw-dropping catch by senior right fielder Alex Friedrich in the eighth inning to preserve the lead put the second-seeded Knights (45-15) one win away from winning the regional and advancing to a Super Regional for the first time in school history.

The Knights will play the winner of the Missouri State-Stony Brook Sunday night at 7 p.m. at Alex Rodriguez Park at Mark Light Field. Missouri State, 2-1 losers to Â鶹ԭ´´ on Friday, stunningly eliminated top-seeded Miami earlier on Saturday.

“From our standpoint, we had a bunch of clutch plays, and I couldn’t be prouder of our kids,” Â鶹ԭ´´ head coach  said. “This is where you want to be — where somebody has to beat you twice. But at the end of the day we just have to play one game at a time. … They’re at a point where they expect to win this regional. They do, and that’s what everybody’s mindset has to be. These kids came in here on a mission.”

Friedrich, Â鶹ԭ´´’s best defensive player all season, made arguably the most important play of the season in the eighth inning when he jumped at the wall and caught a laser off the bat of Stony Brook slugger William Carmona. The catch kept a runner at second base and preserved Â鶹ԭ´´’s one-run lead at the time. It was the second stellar defensive play of the series for Friedrich, who had a diving catch near the foul line in Friday’s victory.

“Off the bat it sounded pretty well-hit, but I thought he might have gotten jammed a little bit. I took a couple of steps back (before the pitch) because the wind was howling and I didn’t want to get burned,” Friedrich said. “I heard (centerfielder) Ronnie (Richardson) talking to me the whole way. I heard gravel (from the warning track) and then I heard fence. I have to give Ronnie for talking me through that play.”

In a season already filled with so many firsts, the Knights can accomplish another first on Sunday if they can win and move onto next week’s Super Regional.

“It’s a big advantage. Instead of having to play a doubleheader (on Sunday), we just have to play one game,” Matos said. “If we lose, we have another day. But they are going to be in the sun all day, and it’s all teed up for us. We just have to take care of our business.”

Â鶹ԭ´´ raced to a 5-0 lead in the first two innings thanks to a Stony Brook throwing error and a three-run home run by junior shortstop . Stony Brook (47-12) tied the game at 5-all to set the stage for Matos’ heroics.

Matos, a 6-foot-2, 210-pounder, is somewhat of an all-or-nothing hitter who rarely gets cheated on swings. He entered his decisive sixth inning at-bat with more strikeouts (41) than hits (32), but he certainly didn’t miss a slider than hung out over the plate. The blast to left-center not only sailed over the 365-foot marker, but cleared the 30-foot scoreboard beyond the fence. It put Â鶹ԭ´´ up 8-5 and energized the more than 1,000 Â鶹ԭ´´ fans who made the three-hour drive from Orlando to support the Knights.

“I was looking for an off-speed pitch because that’s what they’ve been throwing me. I saw the hanger and threw my hands at it. I realized it was hit pretty well,” Matos said. “It’s been a little tough (seeing so many off-speed pitches), so I’ve been trying to let the ball get deep because I have quick hands and hit the ball to the opposite field.”

After Matos’ blast, Â鶹ԭ´´ added an insurance run that proved to be the difference in the game. Friday hero led off with a walk, stole second, was sacrificed to third by Sweeney and driven home by . It was Taladay who had the game-winning hit on Friday as well.

Said Matos: “We knew those few runs weren’t enough, especially in college baseball. That sacrifice fly by Taladay with moving (Richardson) over was huge. That was a big run for us.'”

Lefty , one of the heroes from Friday with his first collegiate save, pitched five innings in relief of starter  on Saturday. He yielded four runs and four hits, while striking out two and walking two.

, who worked out of a bases loaded jam on Friday, got the save on Saturday. He struck out two in the inning and his 13th save of the season came with the tying run on second base.

Â鶹ԭ´´ loaded the bases in the first and got two runs when Stony Brook second baseman Maxx Tissenbaum hurried a throw on a double-play ball. The errant throw staked the Knights to a 2-0 lead.

Sweeney made Stony Brook pay for pitching around Richardson in the second inning, hitting a 0-2 fastball over the right field wall to give the Knights a commanding 5-0 lead. A Miramar native, Sweeney talked in the days before the regional about it being a dream come true to play a postseason series near his South Florida home.

“We talked this afternoon at our team meal, and I told the kids that we’d have to find a different way to win. I really believed that,” Rooney said. “It was 2-1 yesterday and it was (high-scoring), but another one-run game today. We found a way.”

The 5-0 lead for Â鶹ԭ´´ would be short-lived as Stony Brook leadoff hitter Travis Jankowski blasted a three-run home run in the second inning and slugger William Carmona doubled in two runs in the fourth.

That just set the stage for Matos’ tiebreaking home run, Friedrich’s clutch catch and Rogers’ heroics in the ninth inning. Now, the Knights on the verge of making some school history if they can win on Sunday.

“These guys showed up this year when they got back (from the summer break) on a mission,” Rooney said. “We had a bunch of guys who had the opportunity to sign professional baseball contracts and they didn’t. This group of kids got Â鶹ԭ´´ back to a NCAA Regional last year. They all came back on a mission to put themselves in position to win a regional. It’s all about the kids and they’ve done a great job so far.”

Closer Joe Rogers started the inning out by pitching out of a bases loaded, no-out jam, and Ronnie Richardson and Chris Taladay followed with clutch hits that allowed Â鶹ԭ´´ to escape with a 2-1 defeat of Missouri State in Game 1 play of the NCAA Regional.

Â鶹ԭ´´ (44-15) had to wait out a 2-hour, 40-minute rain delay to finish out the ninth inning and the 15th NCAA Tournament victory in school history. But throughout the delay and afterward, the Knights couldn’t stop thinking about the dramatics of the eighth inning.

“Huge moment is an understatement,” Rooney said. “During the delay we were talking amongst ourselves with the coaches and I said that inning had the potential to go down as one of the greatest innings in the history of Â鶹ԭ´´ baseball. When you think about a 1-1 game in the NCAA Regional, bases loaded and nobody out, and for Joe Rogers to work out of that, it was incredible.

“And then to come back and get the go-ahead run in the bottom half of the eighth, that had everything you would want in a college baseball game,” Rooney added.

The standouts were aplenty on Friday for second-seeded Â鶹ԭ´´. Lefty Chris Matulis pitched the ninth inning for the first save of his college career, while starter Ben Lively shut out third-seeded Missouri State (39-21) over 5 2/3 innings. Richardson, Â鶹ԭ´´’s do-everything leadoff hitter, opened the bottom of the first with a home run and started the go-ahead rally in the eighth. Chris Taladay singled in Richardson to give the Knights a lead that they would not surrender.

“Ronnie is a quick guy, so I knew anything that I saw up (in the strike zone) I was going after it,” Taladay said. “ It was a changeup early in the count and I was just trying to make some early action.”

In a NCAA Regional for a second straight year, Â鶹ԭ´´ will face Stony Brook, a 10-2 winner over host Miami on Friday night, at 7 p.m. Saturday. Friday’s win allowed Â鶹ԭ´´ to stay out of the loser’s bracket like last season. The experience of the 2011 Tallahassee region was a huge factor on Friday, Taladay said.

“That experience helps a lot, especially how we ended it last year,” said Taladay, referring to Â鶹ԭ´´’s two losses to Alabama last spring. “We don’t want that again. We’re not looking to lose again. We’re coming out fighting this year.”

Â鶹ԭ´´’s victory was significant considering the quality of competition on the mound on Friday. Missouri State starter Nick Petree was named the Louisville Slugger National Player of the Year on Thursday after leading the nation in ERA this season at 0.92. But the Knights got two hits from Richardson and the go-ahead looper from Taladay to push across the two runs against Petree.

“Ronnie Richardson is one of the best players in the country and is one of the most clutch players in college baseball,” Rooney said. “He rose up and it goes back to the adage that your best players rise up in the biggest situation. He did that by getting the hit there late.”

Â鶹ԭ´´ played well defensively all day with several gems, but its biggest play of the day might have been a dropped popup in foul territory. With the bases loaded in eighth inning, Missouri State’s Eric Cheray lofted a fly ball down the line in left. Ryan Breen, who was making just his seventh start of the season in left field, couldn’t handle the popup in foul territory. It’s probably a good thing since Breen would have had a difficult time throwing out a tagging Luke Voit. Cheray ultimately popped up and Â鶹ԭ´´ got out of the jam when Travis Shreve gloved a grounder and flipped to second base.

Rogers allowed two singles and a walk to load the bases early in the eighth, but he kept his calm as he registered the next three outs to get out of the jam.

“That eighth inning was crazy. It was probably the biggest inning I’ve ever pitched in my life,” said Rogers (5-1), who was credited with the win. “I got down with no outs, but I just told myself that I’ve got to go do it. It was a situation where I had to clear my head and go pitch-to-pitch.”

Missouri State, which had 12 runners left on base during the game, tied the game at 1-all in the seventh inning by stringing together a double and a single. Pinch-hitter Dillon Becker’s fly ball to left field carried in the wind blowing out and hit off the wall for a double. Â鶹ԭ´´ kept the game tied later in the inning when Alex Friedrich’s throw from right field nabbed Kevin Medrano off third base.

Â鶹ԭ´´ sophomore starter Ben Lively, who pitched well last week in the Conference USA tournament to regain his momentum after a poor outing late in the regular season against Rice, was clutch throughout Friday’s first six innings. In 5 2/3 innings, he struck out six batters, but more importantly he stranded seven Missouri State base runners.

Lively jammed hitters early in counts with fastballs and used a good slider to get strikeouts. He allowed just three hits and pitched around four walks. Of his 113 pitches, 62 went for strikes. Richardson’s leadoff home run calmed his nerves and he hung tough as he out of several jams.

“(Richardson’s home run) pumped me up right away and with the way the game was going I knew it was going to be a close game,” Lively said. “I thought that might have won the game right there. It helped me get locked in the whole game.”

Â鶹ԭ´´ got stellar defensive plays early in the game from Friedrich, D.J. Hicks and Breen to maintain the 1-0 lead. Hicks scooped up a low throw in the second inning to keep a runner at second base, while Friedrich made a diving catch near the right field line in the third with two runners on base.

And in the fourth inning, Breen caught a fly ball before crashing into the wall. Usually a catcher, Breen was making just his seventh start in left field because of a sore wrist. And in the fifth, a hard ground ball deflected off Hicks’ glove, but Travis Shreve scooped it up to make the play.

Lively pitched out of trouble in each of the first three runs to keep the Knights ahead, 1-0. With the bases loaded in the top of the first, Lively induced a check swing on a ball in the dirt and when the runner broke from third he was easily tagged out. He ended the second inning with two strikeouts after a Missouri State runner had reached second base.

With two on in the third, Friedrich dove to catch a looper near the right field line, preventing one if not two runs from scoring.

Carrillo and Sweeney made outstanding plays in the sixth inning to stem another Missouri State rally. Carrillo snagged a hard hit ball early in the inning to start a double play. Then, after Madrid relieved Lively, Sweeney went deep into the hole and forced a runner at third to end the inning. For Sweeney, a Miramar native, the game was somewhat of a homecoming.

Â鶹ԭ´´ couldn’t build on its 1-0 lead when it missed great scoring chances in the third and fourth innings. After the first two hitters of the third reached, Petree retired the next three Knights. And with two runners on in the fourth, Â鶹ԭ´´ couldn’t convert a sacrifice and ran themselves out of the inning.

And in the bottom of the eighth inning, Â鶹ԭ´´ used Rogers’ working out of a jam to build some momentum to push across the winning run. Rooney said his Knights are playing with a purpose and Friday’s victory shows the resiliency of the squad.

“The one thing I’m the most proud of all year with these kids is their consistency. Every single day they have shown up and anytime we’ve had to bounce back they’ve done it,” Rooney said. “I do not worry one bit about the mental state of our team. They are kids who are confident and proven and they are here, quite honestly, on a mission trying to do something great.”

So it’s only fitting now – two games deep into an epic Â鶹ԭ´´-Rice winner-take-all series – that the two teams are again tied with one final game on Saturday at 1 p.m. to decide the regular-season champions of Conference USA.

No. 13 Â鶹ԭ´´ (41-13 overall and 16-7 in C-USA play) outlasted No. 4 Rice 8-6 in the conclusion of Game 1  of the series to put itself in position to win its first C-USA title. However, No. 4 Rice (38-15 and 16-7) refused to go away quietly, topping the Knights 9-2 in the rain-delayed nightcap to set up a deciding game on Saturday for the league title.

“We talk all of the time about championship Sunday; well, it’s championship Saturday now,” Â鶹ԭ´´ head coach Terry Rooney said. “Every single weekend we’ve talked about (winning a championship). So we’ll be there at 1 o’clock. What else could you ask for?”

Friday night’s result put somewhat of a damper on Â鶹ԭ´´â€™s 8-6 win earlier in the day and its chance to win a first conference title since 2005 when it was still a member of the Atlantic Sun Conference. A boisterous crowd of 2,687 fans – the fifth-largest all-time at the Â鶹ԭ´´ Baseball Complex and most ever against a non-Florida team – saw the Knights tie the game at 2-all in the fourth inning. However, Rice put the game away by scoring two runs in the fifth, two in the eighth and two in the ninth.

Â鶹ԭ´´ knew all along knocking out Rice would be extremely difficult considering the Owls’ championship pedigree. Rice has made 17-straight NCAA Tournament appearances and has reached the College World Series six times. Now, the Knights must knock out the longtime champs in order to get themselves a championship ring.

“We kind of figured it would come down to this,’’ said junior center fielder Ronnie Richardson, who scored two twice in Â鶹ԭ´´â€™s 8-6 Game 1 win and had a hit in Game 2. “We just have to go win (on Saturday). It’s the definition of championship Sunday, even though it won’t be Sunday.’’

Rooney now must decide on a starting pitcher for Saturday’s winner-take-all game. He could start veteran lefthander Brian Adkins (3-4, 4.20 ERA), Ray Hanson (4-1, 3.51 ERA) or freshman lefty Eric Skoglund (5-1, 2.01). Rooney said he’ll opt for the pitcher who can throw the most strikes after the Knights’ pitchers walked 14 batters and hit three in the two games.

Adkins, a fixture of the rotation the past three games, is desperately hoping he gets the chance to start after slumping down the stretch. Adkins is a finesse pitcher who relies on location and change of speeds.

“It’s huge. Personally I’ve never had a chance to play for a championship of this magnitude, so I’m very excited and hoping to seize this opportunity,’’ Adkins said. “(Starting) is what I’m hoping for. Obviously, I want the ball with the game on the line or the series on the line.’’

Trailing 2-0 in the fourth inning, the Knights turned to the bottom of their order to tie the game up. Jeramy Matos drilled a double into the left field corner to plate Ryan Breen, who had walked. With two outs, Travis Shreve lined the ball up the middle – his fourth hit in the two games – to knot the game at 2-all.

“All season we have given coach gray hairs with one-run games, so it’s kind of fitting that it will come down to this last game for championship (Saturday),’’ said Shreve, who pointed at his family in the stands upon tying up the game. “They’re going through the same conditions as us, so there are no excuses. What it comes down to is the tougher team is going to win. They’re a great team and we’re a great team, and we have to do what we can to win.”

Rice retook a two-run lead in the fifth inning without getting a hit. Two walks, a hit batter, a wild pitch and a fielder’s choice plated two runs to put the Owls up 4-2.

Â鶹ԭ´´ closer Joe Rogers finished off Rice in Game 1, striking out Michael Fuda with two runners on to preserve the 8-6 victory. Remarkably, the conclusion of the game came just a few minutes shy of when it started 24 hours earlier. Rogers, already Â鶹ԭ´´â€™s all-time leader in saves, tied a Â鶹ԭ´´ season-record with his 12th save of the year.

The Game 1 victory was Â鶹ԭ´´â€™s first defeat of a top-five team since last April when the Knights topped No. 5 Florida at the Â鶹ԭ´´ baseball complex.

Â鶹ԭ´´ started Friday with an 8-3 lead, but the advantage shrunk to 8-6 after reliever Roman Madrid walked in two runs and gave up a run-scoring single. Right fielder Alex Friedrich made sure Rice got no closer, throwing out Rice’s Shane Hoelscher at the plate for his seventh outfield assist of the season.

In the early innings on Thursday, Â鶹ԭ´´ rattled and knocked Rice standout starter Matthew Reckling out of the game in third inning with a pair of two-RBI hits from Darnell Sweeney and Chris Taladay. Sweeney drove a 3-1 pitch to the opposite field for a double that scored Nick Carrillo and Travis Shreve, who had reached on a walk and a hit-and-run single respectively. Taladay made it 4-0 with another hit to left-center and D.J. Hicks pushed the score to 5-0 with his 66th RBI of the season.

Friedrich, Â鶹ԭ´´â€™s most consistent hitter all season, made Rice pay for intentionally walking Hicks in front of him by stroking a double to clear the bases in the fourth inning. The three-run shot to the wall gave the Knights a commanding 8-0 lead after four innings.

Now, after a season’s worth of games, a suspended contest, lengthy rain delays on Thursday and Friday and victories by both squads it comes down one game on Saturday for Â鶹ԭ´´ or Rice to win a championship. Richardson said he’s fully confident that his team will rise to the occasion on the big stage and produce in Saturday’s winner-take-all game.

“We dreamed about this and this is why we came to Â鶹ԭ´´. Coach Rooney put together the foundation of this team and now it’s just about us going out to perform.’’

The Knights (40-12, 15-5), who became the third team in the nation to reach 40 wins this year, broke out for four runs in the third, five in the fourth and a pair in the seventh and eighth to finish off the Thundering Herd (16-34, 4-17) and improve their road record to 15-3 overall and 10-2 in Conference USA.

Â鶹ԭ´´’s bats exploded for 15 hits, including a pair of home runs in the contest. Junior Chris Taladay smashed his first-career grand slam while Ronnie Richardson, D.J. Hicks and Jeramy Matos each had three-hit performances.

“(It was) a very determined group of guys today,” Â鶹ԭ´´ head coach Terry Rooney said postgame. “Nobody was happy with the outcome yesterday. For these guys to bounce back the way they did today was without question a determined group. Anytime you can go on the road and win the series, it is a heck of a weekend.”

Before their winner-take-all C-USA series against Rice on Thursday-Saturday, the Knights will host in-state rival Stetson Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m. Fans can enjoy dollar hot dogs all game long.

Facing a 3-0 hole heading into the top of the third, Â鶹ԭ´´ responded in a big way as Travis Shreve hit a single, Richardson reached on an error and Darnell Sweeney sent the ball into center field to load the bases. Taladay wasted no time in unloading them as he smashed a 1-0 pitch over the right field wall for Â鶹ԭ´´’s first grand slam in 364 days (Erik Hempe at UAB).

The long ball wasn’t done for the Knights as Matos led off the top of the fourth with a screaming shot over the left-field wall for his fourth homer of the year. Â鶹ԭ´´ responded with four more runs in the frame, including Hicks’ 65th RBI on a double and Alex Friedrich’s 34th to bring home the first baseman.

Marshall answered Â鶹ԭ´´’s nine-run two-inning barrage with three runs of its own to get back within striking distance, but the Knights would put the game away for good.

After scoreless frames from lefty Chris Matulis and righty Roman Madrid, the Knights tacked on two more in the top of the seventh after a leadoff walk to Nick Carrillo and a single up the middle by Matos led to Richardson bringing home the duo with a single over the pitcher’s mound for his third hit of the game.

Matos’ career day at the plate continued with his seventh double of the year well over the left fielder’s head to score Taladay and Hicks in the eighth. In the bottom-half of the frame, Madrid finished off his longest outing of the year (3 IP, 3 Ks) with a 6-4-3 double play.

Fresh off of breaking the school’s all-time saves record, lefty Joe Rogers appeared in his 74th game as a Knight and retired the Herd in order with two flyouts and his 42nd strikeout of the year to preserve Bryan Brown’s third win of the year.

News & Notes:

-Â鶹ԭ´´ celebrated Mother’s Day at the ballpark as many team mothers and grandmothers made the trip to Charleston, including Kimmy Trivett, who made her first baseball weekend road trip this year with her husband Lynn. The couple made the trek after Kimmy was cleared by her doctors after being recently diagnosed with breast cancer and undergoing radiation treatments. With a clean bill of health, the huge supporters enjoyed the trip which included the entire team signing a Mother’s Day card and posing for a team picture with Kimmy.

“Our team is tough and grinded back, and I think the better team won today. I’m definitely going to get a good night’s sleep,” Friedrich said after a busy game.

Â鶹ԭ´´Â led 7-2 over the Green Wave (26-13, 5-6) heading into the eighth inning, but a three-run double and a two-run ninth-inning homer sent the game into extra innings. Â鶹ԭ´´ didn’t panic and turned to junior , who picked up his third win of the year with three innings of relief, his first non-starting frames since April 1, 2011.

The Knights will go for their sixth sweep of the season on Sunday with  getting the start and the first pitch set for 2 p.m. EDT.

Friedrich wasted no time in getting the Knights on the scoreboard in the bottom of the second. After a lead-off walk to , Friedrich ripped a first-pitch fastball into the power alley in left-center for his 16th double of the year to score the third baseman.  (2-for-6) continued his stellar play of late and notched a double down the left-field line for his 12th RBI this year.

After Tulane tied up the game with a pair of runs in the bottom of the third, shortstop  smacked a 2-0 fastball over the left-field fence to give the Knights a 3-2 lead. It was the second homer of the season for Sweeney and his first since March 4.

The Knights went right back to work in the sixth with three runs on four hits to take a 6-2 lead. Â鶹ԭ´´ stole three bases in the inning and received RBI from (2-for-5) on a double, (1-for-4) on a single through the right side and  on a sacrifice fly.

Starter  pitched effectively all day for the Knights, going six innings for the third time this year while allowing seven hits and two runs with four strikeouts. His day included a six-pitch sixth inning.

Tulane made the game interesting in the bottom of the eighth after registering a bases-clearing double by pinch hitter Tucker Oakley. The Knights got out of the jam after Oakley was thrown out trying to advance on a wild pitch.

 entered the contest for the second-straight day, but didn’t have the same success as he did Friday night, serving up a two-run, two-out home run. It was the first blown save for Rogers this year.

The Knights executed clutch hitting once again in the top of the 12th as  laced a double down the right-field line to lead off the inning. After a Taladay grounder moved him to third, Friedrich smashed an 0-2 pitch into left field for his second double of the game and the go-ahead RBI. Adkins returned in the bottom half of the frame by getting two flyouts and a groundout to clinch Â鶹ԭ´´’s seventh-straight C-USA series.

News & Notes:
-The Knights improved to 11-2 on the road and 9-1 on Saturdays
-Â鶹ԭ´´ is now 10-0 in weekend series in 2012
-It was Â鶹ԭ´´’s 24th game this year with 10-plus hits and 11th in C-USA play
-Â鶹ԭ´´ has now hit 29 homers on the year
-Friedrich extended his hitting streak to 10 games
-Â鶹ԭ´´ has won four of its last five at Tulane
-When the Knights return home next week, they will host Military Appreciation Night at 6:30 p.m. Friday against Memphis. A free admission plus one complimentary ticket offer will be good for active duty, retired and civilian military personnel with a military ID.

The story of the night was Â鶹ԭ´´’s stellar pitching. Freshman Eric Skoglund started and earned his team-leading fourth win. He gave way to Matt Collins, Ben Lively, Bryan Brown, Roman Madrid and closer Joe Rogers. The staff combined for 10 strikeouts and stranded 10 Hurricanes on the base paths.

Juniors Ronnie Richardson and D.J. Hicks, who was named to the Baseball America Midseason All-American team earlier in the day, continued their clutch hitting by combining for three of the Knights’ four hits and a pair of RBI.

“The theme for tonight was being clutch,” Â鶹ԭ´´ head coach Terry Rooney said after the game. “When you are playing great teams, that’s what it comes down to – who makes the clutch pitch and who makes the clutch hit. Obviously we had that tonight.”

The Knights, who have won 14 of their last 16 games, return home to the friendly confides of the Â鶹ԭ´´ baseball complex for a three-game weekend series with UAB beginning Friday night at 6:30 p.m.

With a scoreless game in the top of the third, Richardson took a 2-0 Javi Salas pitch just around the left-field foul pole for his third home run in five games. The Knights have now hit a dinger in seven-straight contests this season.

Hicks led off the fourth inning with what looked like a harmless fly ball, but with the wind blowing well out to left-center, it carried and dropped in front of Miami’s Rony Rodriguez. Hicks advanced on a fielding error after the ball dropped and was brought home by Taladay who grounded a chopper to the shortstop for his 23rd RBI of the season.

Miami wouldn’t go down easily as they entered the scoring column on a Stephen Perez RBI double to right-center off Brown. Madrid came in with one out and the tying run on third. He promptly struck out Dale Carey and forced All-American Peter O’Brien to ground out to him on a nasty slider.

Â鶹ԭ´´ responded in the top of the eighth with two runs of its own. Richardson led off the frame and took first on his 16th hit-by-pitch of the season. Darnell Sweeney laid down a beautiful sacrifice bunt to move him to second. Hicks, tied for first in the nation in RBI entering the game, belted home his 43rd of 2012 on a 3-2 line drive down the left-field line. Alex Friedrich was able to score Hicks as he sent a chopper that ate up Perez at short.

Madrid returned in the eighth and featured more of his filthy repertoire by striking out a Miami batter to begin and end the frame. Rogers worked a perfect ninth, including a strikeout to finish the game, for his 24th-career save and seventh of 2012.

In the series, the Knights outscored Houston, 20-5, and managed a home run in each contest to improve to 6-1 on the road this season.

“We talked before the game about toughness,” head coach Terry Rooney said. “A lot of the time it is about finding a will and a way. We made the comment, `whatever it takes’ and the guys did that today against a very good Houston team with an outstanding starting pitcher.”

Â鶹ԭ´´’s pitching staff shined once again with starter Ray Hanson putting up 5 2/3 innings in his weekend debut. He allowed just one run on six hits. Roman Madrid and Joe Rogers combined to lock down the rest of the game with Rogers moving to 3-0 on the year.

The top of the order (1-5) notched all 10 of the Knights’ hits, including Hicks, Richardson and Taladay who drove in one run apiece.

The Knights will regroup on Monday and Tuesday before heading to Miami for their in-state battle with the Hurricanes Wednesday night at 6 p.m.

Leading off the game, Richardson wasted no time in getting the Knights out ahead as he smacked a 3-2 pitch over the left-field. It was the first dinger to start a contest for Â鶹ԭ´´ since Shane Brown went yard against Marshall on April 23, 2010.

After setting down the first batter in the second, Hanson ran into some trouble with back-to-back singles and an error that loaded the bases. He worked his way out of the frame unscathed by getting Houston’s Jake Runte to popup to Sweeney at short.

Houston tied up the game, 1-1, in the bottom of the fourth on a suicide squeeze, but that would be the only run of the day for the Cougars (10-16, 1-5).

Hanson worked himself out of a jam once again in the fifth by stranding the bases loaded for the second time. The following inning, he maneuvered around a leadoff walk and induced a 1-6-3 double play. In all, Â鶹ԭ´´ pitchers were able to strand 37 Cougars on the base paths this weekend.

Tied 1-1 entering extra innings for the first time this season, Richardson sent a single into left-center and took third on a Sweeney (2-for-5) base knock through the right side. Houston made a pitching change for the lefty-lefty matchup with Hicks (2-for-4), but it didn’t matter as he ripped a 3-1 fastball past the second baseman to bring home Richardson. Taladay (3-for-5) added an insurance run with a liner at the knees of Houston’s Jordan Mannisto that went into center field and plated Sweeney.

Rogers, who relieved Madrid in the eighth after 1 1/3 hitless innings, tossed three lights out frames for his longest outing of the season. The Winter Haven native struck out three Houston batters in his 59th-career relief appearance.

News & Notes:

Before a two-day total of 5,851 spectators – Â鶹ԭ´´’s largest crowd for a series – the Knights held FSU scoreless in 16 of 18 innings, but Tuesday’s seven-run sixth and Jayce Boyd’s solo home run in the fourth inning Wednesday were all the Seminoles needed for the series victory.

“We had great turnouts and great fans. Unfortunately we weren’t able to win these games here with a great crowd,” Â鶹ԭ´´ head coach Terry Rooney said after the game. “I appreciate everyone who came out and saw two great college baseball teams in two one-run intense games. I hope all the people who were out here for the first time enjoyed their experience.”

Making his first start of the season, senior RHP Ray Hanson (Long Beach, Calif.) gave the Knights another quality outing by a starter, going five innings with four strikeouts and surrendering the game’s only run.

Early on, Hanson faced first-inning trouble, but was bailed out when third baseman Chris Taladay (Windermere, Fla.) caught a smoking liner and fired over to senior Travis Shreve (Auburn, Wash.) covering second base for the inning-ending double play.

Hanson continued to get defensive help from his teammates in the top of the fourth. After giving up the solo homer to Boyd, he induced a groundball to Darnell Sweeney (Miramar, Fla.) at short who turned the 6-4-3 inning-ending double play to limit the damage.

Junior lefty Chris Matulis (Boynton Beach, Fla.) relieved Hanson in the top of the sixth and entered in firing darts. Used exclusively as a starter so far in 2012, Matulis made his first relief appearance and sat down the Seminoles in order on two groundouts and a strikeout. He would finish the night with 1 2/3 innings scoreless to his name.

Fellow junior Joe Rogers followed Matulis, tossing 2 1/3 scoreless innings in his longest effort of the season. The southpaw from Winter Haven set down the first six Seminoles he faced and surrendered just one hit on the night.

His toughest at-bat came in the top of the ninth when he retired FSU’s James Ramsey on the 14th pitch. Ramsey, a Preseason All-American, entered the game with a .588 batting average, but all three Â鶹ԭ´´ pitchers held him to a 0-for-3 night.

The closest the Knights got to home plate was in the third inning when Sweeney reached on a bunt single and stole second and third to give him nine thefts on the year. After D.J. Hicks (Altamonte Springs, Fla.) walked, Taladay grounded out to second base to end the threat.

Overall, only three runners reached third base on the evening between the two teams. FSU used four pitchers in the shutout with Scott Sitz earning the win and Robert Benincasa saving his fourth game of the year.

Â鶹ԭ´´ will have a quick turnaround as it hosts Massachusetts for a weekend series beginning Friday night at 6:30 p.m. The Knights are 4-3 all-time against the Minutemen with the two teams last meeting in 2007.

It is the first series victory over an ACC opponent for the Knights since they took two of three at Clemson in 2004.

Â鶹ԭ´´ head coach Terry Rooney applauded both teams for playing a compelling series that featured three one-run games.

“What a series of college baseball for everyone who was out here and saw that,” Rooney said. “That’s college baseball at its best. Three one-run games with all three coming down to the last three innings. A lot of credit goes to Boston College who has a great club.

“We talk about it all the time, everyone picking each other up and Darnell with the confidence to get that big hit after we lost the lead right there,” Rooney added. “I hope that can be a catalyst for us moving forward. At the end of the day, the guys battled. It was an awesome win and the guys did a great job.”

In the third back-and-forth contest between the two teams, the Knights and Eagles (4-2) combined for 19 hits and an error-free ballgame Sunday.

Facing an early 2-0 deficit, Â鶹ԭ´´ evened up the score with two outs in the bottom of the third. Junior Ronnie Richardson (Eagle Lake, Fla.) was hit by his third pitch of the season to take first and improve his on-base percentage to .441. Fellow junior D.J. Hicks (Altamonte Springs, Fla.) took a walk to bring up Chris Taladay with two men on. The junior from Windermere, Fla., delivered with a shot up the middle to plate Richardson for his second RBI of the series.

Junior catcher Ryan Breen (Palm City, Fla.) followed by taking a 1-1 pitch into left field just out of the reach of third basemen John Hennessy’s glove to bring home Hicks and tie the game at 2-2.

Left-handed starter Chris Matulis (Boynton Beach, Fla.) did an excellent job of pitching out of trouble in the top of the fourth after giving up back-to-back singles. He popped up BC’s Blake Butera, induced a foul fly ball that Sweeney tracked down and stuck out Tom Bourdon looking to end the frame.

Just like in the fourth, BC stranded two runners on first and second with Matulis getting a flyout to Richardson in center field. RHP Roman Madrid (Victoria, Texas) relieved the 6-foot-6 Matulis by inducing a flyout to fellow junior Nick Carrillo (Glendale, Fla.) in left and a swinging strikeout to end the frame.

Madrid returned to the mound with a 1-2-3 sixth as second basemen Travis Shreve (Auburn, Wash.) slid to his right to glove the ball and fire it to first for the final out of the frame. He returned in the seventh featuring more of his nasty repertoire by striking out the side swinging.

Â鶹ԭ´´ came through with excellent fundamental baseball in the seventh as Sweeney started the inning with a leadoff walk. After a John Gorman wild pitch to take second base, Sweeney advanced to third on a perfectly executed sacrifice bunt by Richardson to the third basemen Hennessy. Hicks took advantage with a go-ahead single up the middle for his eighth RBI of the year.

Facing a tough task late in the game, junior closer Joe Rogers (Winter Haven, Fla.) took over in the eighth with no outs and men on first and second. He set down Hennessy with a called third strike on an inside fastball. He then struck out Butera swinging on a 1-2 fastball. Rogers, on his 12th pitch of the inning, induced a ball to short which Sweeney flipped to Shreve to get the Knights out of the jam.

The top of the ninth wouldn’t be as easy for Rogers. After giving up a leadoff single down the left-field line, he struck out Anthony Melchionda swinging and popped up Andrew Lawrence, but BC would load the bases on a Marc Perdios single to right followed by a hit batsmen. BC’s Tyler Hinchliffe delivered a shot by Rogers that went into center field, bringing in two runs for the 4-3 lead.

The exciting bottom-half of the ninth started with a pair of singles by Breen and senior Alex Friedrich (Orlando, Fla). Freshman JoMarcos Woods (Orlando, Fla.) stepped into the batter’s box and saw Lawrence throw one in the dirt to allow Breen and Friedrich to advance to second and third. An intentional walk of Woods followed by two Â鶹ԭ´´ popups gave Sweeney a chance to deliver in the clutch with his rope to left field to plate Breen and Friedrich for the two-run walk-off single.

The Knights will have a short turnaround as they host in-state rival USF on Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m. Action from the Â鶹ԭ´´ baseball complex can be seen live on All-Access via Â鶹ԭ´´Athletics.com.