GREENVILLE, N.C. (UCFKnights.com) - The UCF baseball team completed the series sweep of East Carolina Saturday, taking game three in a decisive 7-0 shutout at Clark-LeClair Stadium. It was the first sweep of the Pirates in program history and marked the first road sweep for the Black and Gold since joining the American Athletic Conference.
Freshman starter Joe Sheridan delivered seven and two thirds scoreless innings for the Knights, improving to 6-2 on the season. The right hander gave up just four hits and struck out six before turning the game over to redshirt junior Jordan Scheftz.
"Joe did a phenomenal job today," UCF head coach Greg Lovelady said. "He hasn't had the greatest of starts lately, but he controlled this game from the beginning. He showed a lot of toughness to bounce back this week and shut down this team for seven and two thirds innings. I'm really proud of him."
Scheftz froze the final hitter of the eighth and faced four batters in the ninth. He struck out the lead-off man and added two fly ball outs to seal the victory.
UCF got on the board in the third inning, when third baseman Kam Gellinger started with a double down the right field line. Catcher Anthony George moved him to third with a ground ball to the right side before Center fielder Luke Hamblin drove him in with a sacrifice fly.
The Knights would add two more in the sixth, as George singled and Hamblin reached on an error by the ECU second baseman. George then scored on an infield hit by right fielder Eli Putnam and second baseman Matthew Mika drove Hamblin in with a double to right center.
The Black and gold would add two more runs in both the eighth and ninth innings, putting an exclamation point on the series sweep.
Next up, UCF will host Bethune-Cookman at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday April 18, before UConn comes to town April 21-23 for another AAC series. Saturday's game with the Huskies is slated for 1 p.m. and is part of the UCFastival activities surrounding the Knights spring football game. Click here to purchase tickets in advance or call 407-UCF-1000.
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