Â鶹ԭ´´ was pushed to a winner-take-all game for the NCAA Regional title on Monday after hot-hitting Stony Brook jumped to an early lead, withstood a seventh-inning rally and cruised to a 12-5 defeat of the Knights at Alex Rodriguez Park at Mark Light Field.

That sets up a 7 p.m. showdown on Monday night between second-seeded Â鶹ԭ´´ (45-16) and fourth-seeded Stony Brook (49-12) for the right to advance to the Super Regional later this week.

Â鶹ԭ´´’s mantra “On the Road to Omaha” hit a pothole on Sunday, but head coach Terry Rooney stressed that the Knights are still very much a team on a mission and on the cusp of potential greatness.

“The message to the kids afterward was that we just need to play better and be better in every aspect of the game. (Monday) everything is there for you,” Rooney said. “Everything that you want to accomplish, everything you’ve done to put yourself in position to win a regional championship, is still there. We have a midnight rule (to forget) and we need to regroup. Tomorrow is a new day.”

Â鶹ԭ´´, which was in the winners bracket after beating Missouri State (2-1 on Friday) and Stony Brook (9-8 on Saturday), is attempting to win a NCAA Regional for the first time in school history. The Knights, ranked as high as seventh nationally this season, lost consecutive games just four times all season, and hope to rebound in Monday’s title game.

“We have to take advantage of our opportunities. You can’t miss those opportunities and expect to win games,” Â鶹ԭ´´ standout centerfielder Ronnie Richardson said. “We’re keeping everyone up and we’re used to this. No one ever said it was going to be easy.”

The winner of the Coral Gables Regional will face LSU later this week in the Super Regional. The site for that will be determined by the NCAA on Monday or Tuesday.

“This is why we came here (is to win a regional). We started four years ago with coach (Rooney) and our goals are still right in front of us,” first standout baseman D.J. Hicks said. “We just have to take a hold of it tomorrow and carry it on to the Super Regional.”

Stony Brook pounded out 15 hits and scored three runs in an inning three times. All nine starters had at least one hit, the first five batters combined for 10 hits and standout centerfielder Travis Jankowski is 10 of 19 in the Regional after getting three more hits in Sunday’s nightcap. The Seawolves have scored 10, nine, 10 and 12 runs in four games.

The Knights had seven hits – with D.J. Hicks and Travis Shreve notching two hits apiece. Stony Brook’s Jasvir Rakkar (6-2) got the win in just his third start of the season. Â鶹ԭ´´ is 2-1 in the regional, but it has just 20 hits in the three games.

Said Rooney: “Offensively we need to get it going. Stony Brook is an outstanding offensive club and we have an outstanding club. It’s time for our offense to start clicking and putting up double-digit hits and crooked-number innings.”

Down 8-2 much of the night, the Knights mounted a furious rally in the bottom of the seventh to put a scare into Stony Brook. A RBI single by Shreve and a bases loaded walk from Darnell Sweeney got the Knights to within 8-4.

The biggest play of the night came when Chris Taladay hit a sharp liner into the hole, but Stony Brook shortstop Cole Peragine dove to make a catch that prevented two runs from scoring. Alex Friedrich drove in the fifth run and Â鶹ԭ´´ slugger Hicks came to the plate with a chance to tie the game. Hicks, who homered in the second inning, was called out on a controversial check swing to end the rally.

Stony Brook got to Sunday’s title game by scoring seven runs in the seventh inning to beat Missouri State 10-7. Stony Brook has proven to be an extremely resilient team throughout this NCAA Regional. The Seawolves routed Miami on Friday after the Hurricanes had tied the game at 2. They fell behind Â鶹ԭ´´ 5-0 on Saturday and clawed back and wiped out deficits of 5-0 and 7-2 earlier Sunday against Missouri State.

Nearly flawless defensively in the first two games of the NCAA Regional, Â鶹ԭ´´ had problems with a couple of throws in the second inning to put itself in a hole. When Kevin Krause scored on a ground out to put Stony Brook up 1-0, it was Â鶹ԭ´´’s first deficit in 20 innings of this regional.

Throwing errors by Sweeney and Shreve played a big role in Stony Brook’s next two runs, dropping the Knights into a 3-0 hole.

Hicks, who was dropped into the fifth hole in the order before the game, snapped out of a mini-slump with a 390-foot blast to left-center in the second inning. The home run was the first for Hicks since May 6, a span of 23 games.

“I hadn’t been doing too great of late. But the season is coming to an end with a few games left with (Monday’s game), the Super Regionals and Omaha, so I told myself to relax and see the ball better,” Hicks said. “I had to stop trying to do too much. I did that today and I have to carry it over to (Monday).”

Stony Brook broke the game open with a run in the third and three more in the fourth inning to grab a commanding 7-1 lead. Stony Brook had nine hits through four innings, knocking Â鶹ԭ´´ starter Eric Skoglund out of the game and greeting reliever Bryan Brown with three straight RBI at-bats.

Rooney has said for days that his Knights came to Miami as a team on a mission, and they will get another chance to complete that mission on Monday night. Rooney has praised his team’s consistency and resiliency all season and they will need a big bounce-back effort on Monday to secure the biggest win in school history.

“I’m extremely confident. (Bouncing back) is what we’ve done all year long,” Rooney said. “We haven’t had many occasions where we have lost consecutive games and we’ve always figured out a way to get the job done.

“The thing I’m most proud of is the consistency we’ve played with all year,” Rooney continued. “Consistency means you don’t have losing streaks because you learned from what you did. Do you learn why you lost? It’s not good enough to just say, `Well, tomorrow is a new day and we’ll be OK.’ You have to know what you need to do to get better. Every goal we want is still ahead of us and we just have to play the game better. Play the game, let it rip and have fun.”

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.”

Now, a year after simply reaching a NCAA Regional in 2011, the Knights are hoping to use that experience to benefit them greatly when they head to Coral Gables later this week to face Missouri State and then possibly either Miami or Stony Brook.

Gathered around televisions at The MOAT Monday afternoon, Â鶹ԭ´´’s players, coaches and fans let out a loud roar when it was revealed that the Knights (43-15) earned a second seed in the Miami region and will face Missouri State (39-20) in first-round play of the double-elimination weekend.

“That experience from last year will help us tremendously. We don’t want that same feeling that we had last year when we left out of Florida State. We want to make it a totally different feeling this year,” standout centerfielder Ronnie Richardson said. “Last year we lost our first game and you really don’t want to lose that first game because it puts you in a bad position. We’re going to take it one game at a time and try to win every game.”

Â鶹ԭ´´, which spent all season ranked nationally, will be playing in a NCAA Regional in Coral Gables for the first time in school history. The Knights had played previously in Tallahassee seven times, in Gainesville twice and once in Columbia, S.C.

As for Miami, the Knights split a pair of games, winning in Coral Gables where this week’s Regional will be held.

“To be able to go down to Miami is pretty cool. And to be able to avoid Florida and Florida State for now is good, too,” Richardson said. “Maybe we’ll meet them in Omaha (at the College World Series), that would be cool, too.”

Head coach Terry Rooney, the architect of Â鶹ԭ´´’s turnaround in baseball, feels the Knights got loads of positive experience from qualifying for a NCAA Regional last season and that will pay off this week. Â鶹ԭ´´ defeated Bethune-Cookman, but lost two games to Alabama last spring. The Knights started this season with a theme of `good to great,’ and winning this weekend and reaching a Super Regional would qualify as another huge step for the program.

“First and foremost, nothing can replace experience. Last year was the first time any of the players in our program had gone to a NCAA Regional. Now that we’ve been there I think that experience will help us moving forward,” Rooney said. “At the beginning of the year, our theme was `good to great,’ and when you talk about our regular season we achieved that with more than 40 wins and second place in the conference. Now, we’ve put ourselves in a good position to win a regional.”

Â鶹ԭ´´ will open against a Missouri State team that ranked 35th in the nation this season in RPI and notched several impressive victories. The Bears swept two games from Oklahoma State, beat Purdue, swept three games from Creighton and also toppled Kansas (twice), Kansas State and Wichita State (twice). Missouri State lost to NCAA Tournament team, Missouri, 4-3 in 11 innings on April 25 and 10-5 on May 9. The Bears lost 3-2 in 10 innings to Southern Illinois in the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament semifinals.

“It’s a great regional. We obviously know about Miami having had the opportunity to play them and it’s an outstanding program,” Rooney said. “Stony Brook is a four seed, but they are clearly one of the best in the entire bracket. And with Missouri State, just look at their record and the teams that they beat. The point being that it’s an outstanding, competitive regional.”

Â鶹ԭ´´ has won at Alex Rodriguez Stadium twice in the last three years and will go to South Florida quite familiar with their surroundings. Â鶹ԭ´´ defeated Miami 4-1 on April 4 behind a home run from Richardson, two RBI from standout first baseman D.J. Hicks and work from six pitchers. The Knights feel that playing in a park where they have had success will also be an advantage for them.

“I think it is an advantage (playing in Miami). For me personally I love playing there because the ball flies. So you don’t have to swing quite as hard,” Hicks said. “A lot of us love playing down there.”

After a slow start in the C-USA Tournament, Â鶹ԭ´´ rallied to defeat East Carolina and Tulane and will take plenty of momentum with it into the Regional. Rooney said every decision he makes over the weekend will be with the mindset of trying to win the weekend and push the Knights further into the NCAA tourney.

“When you talk about the pitching matchups, to me two things are important. Number one is that you are playing one game at a time and I mean that. I know it’s a coach’s cliché, but it’s true,” Rooney said. “And number two, you are there to win the regional. We talk about this `On the Road to Omaha,’ and `Good to Great,’ but at the end of the day we’re playing to get to Omaha. We feel comfortable going down there and any decision that we is trying to win a regional. You think short term and about the whole regional, too. We’re just very excited about this opportunity.”

NCAA Regional Tickets and Fan Event

To order NCAA Regional tickets, call the University of Miami ticket office starting Tuesday at 305-284-2263. Ticket packages are $90 for field box, $60 for chairback, $45 for adult general admission and $30 for youth, seniors and students. Individual day passes will go on sale later this week.

The Golden Knights Club will host an event for Knights fans from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday, June 1, at Buffalo Wild Wings at the Shops at Sunset Place, 5701 Sunset Drive, South Miami. Complimentary food will be provided.

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.

Â鶹ԭ´´’s starting centerfielder wants to win and unlike Rudy Stein, Richardson has no problem getting hit by a pitch if it means he gets on base and gives his team a better chance to win. In fact, Richardson is mastering the art of getting hit by a pitch.

Richardson has been hit by a pitch for a single-season record 23 times and 53 times in his career, trailing former teammate Shane Brown who was plunked 55 times in his career.

But it’s more than just the number of times Richardson has been hit. It’s how he gets hit. There’s a 94-mile-per hour fastball. There’s an 88-mile-per hour slider. And there’s the 72-mile-per-hour changeup. Most of the pitches that hit Richardson are not intentional. Once in a while, he wonders if the pitch is more than one that “got away.”

Getting hit by a pitch is not fun. It can hurt. So, how does Richardson deal with it? How does he deal with the bruises and does he ever play “Rudy Stein” and lean into one to get on base?

“I think of it as getting on base to help my team win,” said Richardson. “But it hurts at times, don’t get me wrong.”

Richardson knows as a leadoff man his job is to get on base. But taking a blazing fastball can leave a mark.

“I got hit in the back as I turned against UAB with a hard fastball and that one hurt,” said Richardson. “Later in the game, I got hit a third time and I started wondering if something was going on.”

Richardson says it might surprise some to think that a curveball might hurt more than the fastball. Why?

“On the fastball it just hits you and you don’t know it’s coming, “said the junior from Eagle Lake, Fla. “The curveball you actually have to think about how to turn and get out of the way and that sometimes ends up stinging the most.”

Has Richardson ever gone “Rudy Stein” and taken one for the team to get on base?

“Oh yes. You’ve got to do what you have to do to get on base,” said Richardson.

While opposing catchers have never said anything about whether he is leaning into pitches on purpose, umps have warned him about such a move, something college baseball has cracked down on this year.

Baseball has always had a relationship with statistics. There are numbers that are etched in the game’s history. There’s DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak. Ted Williams is the last to hit .400. There’s 3,000 hits and there’s 500 homers as special milestones to reach. But now Richardson zones in a number of his own. He is two hit-by-pitches shy of tieing former teammate Shane Brown for the Â鶹ԭ´´ record. What would it mean to own the record?

“Having any record Shane Brown had at Â鶹ԭ´´ would be an honor,” said Richardson, a former teammate of Brown. “And I guess this would be pretty special as well.”

So what happens if it’s late in the season and Richardson is tied with Brown at 55? Would he pull a “Rudy Stein” and lean into one?

“Well, if it gets me on base and gives a chance to win, you never know,” said Richardson.

Spoken like an artist who has mastered his craft…

“Anytime you can sweep a series it is a tremendous accomplishment and to do it on the road in this environment against a very good Tulane team – the guys deserve all the credit,” Â鶹ԭ´´ head coach  said. “I felt like we had poise and confidence all weekend and never panicked. What an accomplishment by an unbelievable group of 27 guys committed to finishing it up.”

Third baseman provided serious pop in the lineup for the Knights, who totaled 11 hits in the game. The Windermere native smashed three doubles for four RBI in his 10th three-hit game of the year. Senior  also upped his team-leading batting average (.360) with a 3-for-4 contest while extending his hitting streak to 11 games.

Starter  pushed his season record to 4-1 after going five innings and allowing four hits and two runs while striking out a pair. It’s the second-straight Sunday win for the Long Beach, Calif., native.

Â鶹ԭ´´ will have no midweek games as it is finals week on campus. The Knights return to action at 6:30 p.m. Friday with Memphis in town for a three-game set. It will be Military Appreciation Night with free admission plus one complimentary ticket available for active duty, retired and civilian military personnel with a military I.D.

Out of the gates, Â鶹ԭ´´ wasted no time in getting on the scoreboard with its 42nd first-inning run. Taladay ripped a double into the right-center gap to score  after he led the game off with a walk and his 17th stolen base of the season.

Taladay struck again in his second plate appearance with a clutch two-run, two-out double through the first baseman’s glove down the right-field line to score (1-for-2, 1 RBI) and Ìý(2-´Ú´Ç°ù-5).

Hanson’s greatest test came in the bottom of the fourth after he hit a batter, allowed a bloop double that dropped in on the right-field line and walked the following Green Wave hitter. With the bases loaded, Hanson got Frank Florio to send a ball to Sweeney at short. He stepped on second and fired to first for the inning-ending double play.

The Â鶹ԭ´´ offense responded in the top of the fifth with three more runs while stealing three bags in the frame. Hicks drove in Shreve on his eighth sacrifice fly of the year for RBI No. 56. Sweeney and  both scored from third on back-to-back wild pitches to give the Knights a 6-0 advantage.

Big boppers Hicks and Taladay continued their strong afternoons with back-to-back doubles to lead off the seventh inning. Taladay entered the game with 59 hits, and just six of the extra-base variety, before the three-double performance.

Tulane once again attempted a late-inning comeback on the Knights with four runs, all on singles, in the bottom of the seventh to make it an 8-6 game. Lefty  entered the game to get the final out of the frame and pitched a perfect eighth inning to hold the Â鶹ԭ´´ lead.

Junior righty  came in and promptly closed out the ninth inning for his third save of the season while lowering his ERA to 0.30 in 30 innings of work with 34 strikeouts.

News & Notes:
-Tulane never led in the series
-Â鶹ԭ´´ has swept six weekend series, the most since 2004 (7)
-It was the 25th game this year with 10-plus hits and 12th in C-USA play
-With eight sacrifice flies on the year, Hicks is tied for third all-time in a season and three away from the record shared by and Mark Maloney (11)
-Â鶹ԭ´´ has now won five of its last six at Tulane
-The Knights took the lead in the all-time series, 14-13
-Richardson has now stolen 12, 15 and 17 bases so far in his three seasons on campus

“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.

Â鶹ԭ´´, winners in five of its last six in Hattiesburg, smacked 13 hits, including five of the extra-base variety, and had , and all notch multiple-RBI performances. Senior went 6 2/3 innings and allowed just two earned runs while striking out five for his third win of the year.

“Our theme on Saturday and Sunday was to play like we had something to prove. These guys responded (after Friday) the last two days, and I couldn’t be prouder of them,” Â鶹ԭ´´ head coach said. “What a resilient group of guys.”

One of the more impressive and painful records fell on Sunday as center fielder (3-for-4) was hit in back-to-back at-bats to give him 23 on the year, and 53 for his career. He passed for the single-season record in the category.

The Knights, leaders of Conference USA at 9-3, will have a short turnaround as they host Florida Atlantic on Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m.

After each pitcher made it through the first two innings with ease, USM’s Boomer Scarborough ran into trouble in the third after he walked Hicks (1-for-4, 2 RBI) and Taladay (2-for-3, 2 RBI) to lead off the frame. laid down a sacrifice bunt that left all the runners safe. After a balk to bring home a run, Breen (2-for-5, 4 RBI) smacked his third triple of the year down the right-field line to end Scarborough’s afternoon. would tack on one more run on a RBI-groundout.

Â鶹ԭ´´ extended its lead in the top of the fifth after Southern Miss put up two runs in the previous frame. Taladay extended his hitting streak to eight games with a double to the wall in right-center and was brought home on a RBI groundout by Breen. tacked on a run-scoring single over the shortstop’s outstretched glove in shallow center to make it 6-2.

The Knights added exclamation points to the triumph with three runs each in the sixth and seventh frames on seven hits. Taladay took a 0-1 pitch to center field for a pair of RBI in the sixth and Hicks smashed a two-run homer, his 10th of 2012, over the left-center wall in the seventh to give him 54 RBI on the year.

and finished off the contest that saw all three arms allow just five Southern Miss hits on the day.

News & Notes
-Coming into the year, Â鶹ԭ´´ had never won consecutive Conference-USA series to open a season, but the Knights have won all four league series in 2012.
-Breen, Friedrich and Taladay extended their hitting streaks to eight games.
-On the week, Â鶹ԭ´´’s pitching staff put up a 1.99 ERA, and it has a 2.83 earned run average this year.
-Brown made his 68th-career appearance, seventh all-time at Â鶹ԭ´´.