ORLANDO -- Jeremy Frost and Rich Wallace hit towering shots over the left field wall at Jay Bergman Field Wednesday evening, igniting the UCF offense in a 9-4 victory over Bethune-Cookman. Tonight’s win ends the Knights season series with the Wildcats. Each team won two games, with UCF taking two in Orlando and Bethune winning its two games in Daytona.
Bo Hall received his second start on the season and took full advantage winning his second game in eight days against the Wildcats. Hall pitched six scoreless innings March 19. Hall’s record improves to 3-0 overall and he leads the team with a 1.08 ERA. He tossed 5.2 innings tonight, surrendering two unearned runs on five hits, while blowing away seven Wildcats.
The Golden Knights slowly but surely added up the runs, scoring in every inning except the third and sixth. Wayne Summers started in the DH spot with the lefty on the mound for Behtune and earned himself a walk in the first inning. He advanced to second on a single, third on a fielder’s choice and scored the games first run on a Travis Johnson wild pitch. UCF scored once in the second off a Mike Myers double to left that brought in Adam Miller from second base.
The fireworks started in the fourth when Frost lead off the inning with a solo shot that was absolutely crushed over the left field wall. That made the score three nothing and it would be six nothing in favor of UCF at the end of the fifth. With one out and nobody on Wallace duplicated Frost’s bomb to left field on the pitchers 3-1 offering. Two batters later and the wildcats made their first call to the bullpen. Noah Garland could not stop the bleeding and did not receive much help from his defense as UCF would score two more times, utilizing two hits and two errors.
The Wildcats started to fight back as they posted two runs in the sixth and seventh to cut UCF’s lead to two. Bethune used a two out rally to score their runs in the seventh, which was ended when Carlos Marrero was tagged out at second trying to stretch a two RBI single into a double.
The Golden Knights answered with two of their own in the bottom of the seventh and added one for insurance in the eighth to make the score 9-4. The ball was handed over to Zach Sutton in the eighth, which he cruised through retiring the side in order. The ninth was a little more adventurous, putting two men on with bean balls, but Sutton was able to work out of the self-inflicted trouble and get the number three hitter to ground out to short. Sutton earned his second save on the season with his two innings of work.
Frost had one mighty swing going 1-for-2, but contributed greatly reaching base three times via the free pass and scored twice. David Mann continued to be the team’s hottest hitter, entering the game in the sixth as a pinch hitter with a right hander now on the mound. He singled in that at bat and would add another single in the seventh as the DH to go 2-for-2. The big stick on the night belonged to Miller who was 4-for-5 with two runs scored and a RBI.
UCF take to the field once again Friday, March 29, when they continue Atlantic Sun play against Samford University. The first pitch is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. at Jay Bergman Field. The Knights will finish their weekend action with a double header on Saturday, March 30 against Samford starting at 1:00 p.m.
