DELAND, Fla.- The No. 1 seed UCF Golden Knights scored six runs in the seventh inning to comeback and defeat No. 6 Samford, 7-5, Wednesday afternoon in the opening round of the Atlantic Sun Baseball Championship at Melching Field at Conrad Park.
Samford scored an unearned run in the first inning to take an early 1-0 advantage. Major Allred singled sharply down the right field line to score Cory Sumner to give the Bulldogs the lead.
UCF answered quickly in the home half of the inning, as the first three batters tallied singles for the Knights. Dee Brown had the key hit as he lined a RBI single to left center to score David Mann to deadlock the game at one.
The Bulldogs regained the lead in the fourth with two runs. Michael Collins singled to right field to score both Heath Owen and Sae Evans to put Samford back on top at 3-1.
Samford threatened to put the game out of reach in the top of the seventh as the Bulldogs loaded the bases with just one out, but UCF starter Lincoln Mincks allowed just a sacrifice fly off the bat of Robert Evans to escape out of the frame. The sacrifice fly for Evans was his first RBI of the game and extended the Samford lead to 4-1.
The Knights sent 10 batters to the plate in the home half of the seventh and scored six runs to regain the lead, 7-4. Three UCF players were hit by a pitch in the inning and Samford committed an error to open the floodgates. Mike Myers stroked a two-run single to center with the bases loaded to pull UCF to within one at 4-3. After Dee Brown was hit by a pitch to load the bases again, Rich Wallace stroked a single to center to tie the contest at four. Clay Timpner followed with a fielder’s choice to score the go-ahead run for UCF. Still in the seventh, Dee Brown scored on a passed ball and David Frost added a RBI single to close out the scoring for the Knights.
Samford scored one run in the ninth before UCF closer Zach Sutton came in to record the final for his eighth save of the season.
Lincoln Mincks (7-5) pitched 7.0 innings and allowed just one earned run on six hits for UCF. Samford starter Derek Tharpe lasted 6.0 innings and surrendered four earned runs on six hits to fall to 4-7 on the year.
With the win, UCF improved to 37-20 on the year while Samford dropped to 27-30. The Golden Knights will face the loser of Stetson-Troy State Thursday afternoon at 3 p.m. while Samford will face the loser of Florida Atlantic and Jacksonville tomorrow at 11 a.m.
