TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (UCFKnights.com) - The No. 20 UCF baseball team dropped its series opener at No. 8 Florida State 6-4 on Tuesday night. Despite outhitting the Seminoles 8-5 and scoring a trio of runs in the eighth, the Knights could not complete the comeback at Dick Howser Stadium.
"I was proud of the guys for not giving up," head coach Greg Lovelady said. "In the last 15 games, we've done a good job of continuing to play and not shutting it down. Tonight, three of their runs came from free bases, which is too many. We had a chance with the bases loaded and one out early in the game, and we couldn't get it done. We had opportunities, but we have to take advantage of them. They're one of the best teams in the country, and we can't make mistakes like that. When they give us chances to score, we need to take advantage of them."
The Knights scored three of their four runs on home runs. With the Black and Gold trailing 2-0 in the fourth, Tyler Osik sent a solo shot over the wall in right center to halve the deficit. UCF fell behind 6-1 entering the eighth inning when Rylan Thomas curled a 2-0 delivery around the right foul pole for a two-run opposite-field home run. Later in the eighth, Dallas Beaver brought the Knights within two on an RBI single to left field.
Florida State (17-4) was led by starting pitcher Andrew Karp's performance over 7 1/3 innings. The righty struck out 10 and scattered six hits on the night. The Seminoles opened the scoring with a two-run home run in the third and tacked on three more runs on a pair of RBI singles and a sacrifice fly an inning later. The UCF pitchers issued a free pass to three of the six FSU runs.
KEY STATS
No. 20 UCF (17-5) - 4, No. 8 Florida State (17-4) - 6
Winning pitcher: Andrew Karp (4-1)
Losing pitcher: Jordan Spicer (3-1)
Top performers: Rylan Thomas (2-4, 2 RBI, 1 HR), Tyler Osik (1-3, 1 RBI, 1 HR)
NOTABLES
* UCF starting pitcher Jordan Spicer took his first loss as a Knight. The junior went four innings with five strikeouts, and allowed four hits, five earned runs and three walks against.
* Tuesday night was the first time this season that the Black and Gold lost by more than one run.
* Osik's homer was his fifth of the season.
* Thomas now has seven home runs in 2018. He set the freshman program record with 14 last year.
* Luis Ferrer and Garrett Westberg held the Seminoles off the board for the final two innings with three combined punchouts.
* Matthew Mika stole his 14th base of the season. He had 25 as a sophomore in 2017.
UP NEXT
The Knights and the Seminoles will wrap up their two-game series tomorrow afternoon at 4 p.m. UCF will send Thad Ward to the mound for his fifth start of the year.
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Season and single-game tickets for UCF Baseball are on sale. Featuring a 36-game home schedule, John Euliano Park is set to host some of the best collegiate baseball in the country. For more information on tickets call 407-823-1000 or log on to ticketmaster.com.
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