ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFKnights.com) – The UCF Baseball team took game one from UConn in decisive fashion, beating the Huskies 8-1 at the UCF Baseball complex Friday. Senior starter Robby Howell threw his second complete game of the season and notched a career-best 11 strikeouts in the effort.
After walking the first batter of the game on four-straight pitches, Howell dug deep and proceeded to dominate the visitor's lineup. He retired the next three in order, including his first strikeout, before sitting down all three hitters he faced in the second inning.
"Robby threw unbelievably well from the second hitter on," UCF head coach Greg Lovelady said. "I'm really proud of him because we challenged him all week. He hadn't pitched too well the last two weeks, he had just walked too many guys. I'm really proud of how he handled things mentally after walking the first hitter. He just flushed it, didn't worry about it and just dominated from then on."
Howell faced just 33 hitters and threw 107 pitches, 71 for strikes, and walked only two batters. The Infield was solid behind him, making several tough plays for big outs. The only Huskies run came in the sixth, set up by a lead-off double that was mishandled, allowing the runner to move to third.
Howell fanned the next batter on three pitches, but the run came in on a ground out to first with one out. Back-to-back singles continued the threat with two outs, but Howell shut the door with another strikeout to end the inning.
The Black and Gold offense hit early and often as well, posting two runs in each of the first and third innings before adding a four spot in the fourth.
First baseman Rylan Thomas delivered two RBIs in the first, after right fielder Eli Putnam and second baseman Matthew Mika each singled. It was Thomas who led off the third with a double and scored when left fielder Kyle Marsh followed with a double of his own. Marsh would move to third on a wild pitch and come home on a deep fly ball out by short stop Brennan Bozeman.
The Knights compounded the lead in the fourth, when center fielder Luke Hamblin reached on an infield single and Putnam Blasted a no-doubter over the wall in left center. Not to be outdone, after Mika had doubled and stole third, Thomas stepped up and smashed his ninth home run of the season deep over the left field fence.
All told, UCF scored eight runs on 11 hits and one error. Mika stole three bases, improving to 21-23 on the year while Thomas brought his team-best RBI total to 38. The Knights first four batters hit a combined .500 with seven RBIs and two home runs.
"When you're facing the pre-season pitcher of the year, a guy that has unbelievable stuff, and we just found a lot of barrels," Lovelady said of his team's offense. "We did a great job of getting good pitches to hit and really making him pay when he made mistakes."
Game two Saturday is slated for 1 p.m. and is part of the UCFastival activities surrounding the Knights spring football game. Sunday's series finale is also scheduled for a 1 p.m. start. Catch all the action streaming live at UCFKnights.TV, listen at FM 96.9 The Game, or follow along via live stats.
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