ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFKnights.com) - By the fourth inning Saturday, the UCF baseball team was trailing Stony Brook 3-0 at the UCF Baseball Complex. Then the offense came alive and the home team posted eight runs before the night was through.
"I'm proud of the guys, when we found our groove we played really well," UCF head coach Greg Lovelady said. "After the third inning we played some pretty clean baseball. We made some great defensive plays and got some big hits in tough at-bats. We seem to get stronger as the game progresses, that's exactly what you want to see."
The Seawolves manufactured two runs in the second and one more in the third before the Black and Gold turned the tables in the fourth. With Stony Brook threatening again in the fourth, short stop Kam Gellinger made a great stop in the hole and right fielder Eli Putnam followed with a great catch on the run down the right-field line to end the inning.
The Knights came up in the bottom of the fourth with some swagger, as third baseman Matthew Mika drew a one-out walk and then scored on a Gellinger double. Putnam followed with an RBI triple, extending his hit streak to 11-games to start the season.
Next it was center fielder Luke Hamblin who singled through the left side scoring Putnam before first baseman Rylan Thomas added innings fourth-straight hit. Hamblin stole third, Thomas second, and back-to-back sacrifice flies from left fielder Kyle Marsh and second baseman Ryan Crile gave the Knights a 4-3 lead.
The Seawolves tied it back up in the fifth, with a lead-off home run but starting pitcher Juan Pimentel shut down the next three hitters. UCF posted the go-ahead run in the sixth, two in more the seventh on a big two-out hit by Hamblin, and one more in the eighth as Marsh delivered a solo shot over the fence in left field.
Right-hander Bryce Tucker came on in relief in the seventh inning and earned his third save of the season finishing the game on the mound. He gave up a single to the first hitter he faced before retiring nine-straight Seawolves, striking out five, including the last two hitters in the ninth.
Notable Knights
- Putnam extends his hitting-streak to 11 games to open the season
- Hamblin went 2-for-3 with 3 RBIs
- Pimentel (3-0) picks up his third win in a row
- Tucker now has 14 strikeouts and has given up just 2 hits and 1 walk in 7 innings of work
- Marsh now leads the Knights with 15 RBIs
- Crile, Marsh, Bryce Peterson, and Putnam each have 2 home runs
The series finale is slated for Mar. 5 at 1 p.m. at the UCF Baseball Complex. Click here to purchase tickets in advance or call 407-UCF-1000.
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