May 11, 2013
UCF Athletics Social Media Directory
By Eric DeSalvo
UCFAthletics.com
ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFAthletics.com) - The final weekend series at home for the UCF baseball team did not get any easier Saturday afternoon as Tulane got the best of the Knights, 15-9, in a contest that was moved up three hours from its original start time.
Playing its final regular season home game in Conference USA, UCF will look to have its seniors go out winners Sunday morning with the first pitch moved up to 11 a.m. Prior to the start of the series finale at 10:40 a.m., 12 members of the Knights (27-24, 11-9) will be honored on Senior Day.
Both starters had early troubles locating the strike zone in the first inning, giving up two runs apiece on just one hit while facing eight batters in each lineup and stranding the bases loaded.
Tied at 2-all, UCF doubled its lead in the second frame as senior Erik Hempe (1-for-4, 1 HR, 2 R) made it two straight games with a home run, after he blasted a 2-1 pitch to dead center for his sixth dinger of the year. JoMarcos Woods (2-for-4, 1 RBI) would rip the next pitch to right field and hustle his way to third base for his third triple of 2013 prior to scoring on a passed ball.
Tulane did not go away quietly, however, tagging senior Chris Matulis (5-4) for three runs in the fourth to knock him out of the contest just 3 2/3 innings into it.
Senior Chris Taladay (2-for-5, 1 RBI), having already secured a hit in 27 of his last 28 games, made the Green Wave pay for their two-out mistakes by scoring Spencer Haynes on an RBI single to right field to knot up the game at 5-all.
After Tulane took a 7-5 advantage with a pair of runs in the fifth, it tacked on two more in the sixth and seventh to become just the first team to score more than 10 runs in a game against the Knights in 2013. The Green Wave's (27-24, 10-10) Andrew Garner capped off an impressive 5-for-5 day at the dish by hitting for the cycle with a three-run homer in the top of the ninth.
UCF would score its final three runs in the bottom of the ninth, sending eight to the dish prior to Tulane's Emerson Gibbs shutting the door.
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