ORLANDO — The UCF baseball team suffered its first loss at home this season as the Knights dropped their first of two games against Vanderbilt 7-2 Thursday evening at Jay Bergman Field in a game that was much closer than the score indicated. UCF made two costly errors and two bad pitches to help the Commodores take the victory.
Vanderbilt struck first in the top of the fourth scoring three runs on one swing of the bat, when Sean Luellwitz crushed his second home run of the season over the left field wall and saw two players cross home in front of him. The lead-off man reached first after being hit by a pitch from UCF starter Paul Lubrano. Lubrano had the man on first picked off, only to see him safe at second when the first basemen threw the ball wide of the man covering second in the run down. The next man up singled and Luellwitz sent Lubrano’s only mistake of the night out of the park.
UCF was unable to get anything going against Vanderbilt’s pitching until the seventh inning when the Knights put their first run on board. Clay Timpner singled through the right side of the infield to start the inning, ending up at second when Matt Fox lined a ball of the pitchers leg to the third basemen who just got Fox at first. Bo Hall came to the plate next and deposited a single into left field scoring Timpner from second. David Mann followed up with another single, which forced Vanderbilt’s starter out of the game. Unfortunately for the Knights the rally was ended when the next batter grounded to second base to end the inning.
UCF and Vanderbilt traded runs in the eighth to make the score 4-2 going into the ninth and it seemed as though the Knights would have a chance for some last inning heroics. The chances of that were greatly depreciated when Vanderbilt posted three runs in the ninth to give them a 7-2 lead. The first two batters reached base, only to see Knights relief pitcher Zach Sutton battle back to get the next two outs and have runners on second and third. It looked as if UCF had escaped when Sutton got the next batter to pop the ball up to right field, only to have it hit the ground allowing two runs to score. After a single and a wild pitch, Vanderbilt had all the insurance they needed.
Two errors and two bad pitches by the Knights helped Vanderbilt to their seven runs, while UCF could not get the critical hit needed to spark the offense.
UCF will have right hander Mark Michael, with a record of 1-2, 2.78 ERA on the mound tomorrow night. Vanderbilt will be throwing freshman stand out Jeremy Sowers, who is 2-0 with a 0.60 ERA thus far this season.
Game time is set for 6:00 p.m. Friday, March 8 at Jay Bergman Field.
Mistakes Cost UCF In 7-2 Loss To Vanderbilt
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