ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFKnights.com) – The UCF baseball team needed extra innings on Tuesday night to complete the season sweep of North Florida on the road. The Knights tied the game in the top of the ninth and later scored four runs in the 11th to win 9-7.
“I’m proud of the guys for how hard they fought tonight,” head coach Greg Lovelady said. “It was another slow start, but we found a way to rally back. I’m proud of the pitchers for focusing on what they can control. That’s two games in a row that we’ve come back. The guys kept chipping away at the gap and doing whatever they needed to win tonight. There’s still some stuff to clean up, but we’ll take this momentum into Tulane this weekend.”
Ray Alejo and Dallas Beaver powered the offense with a pair of three-hit games, with the latter driving in a trio of runs on the night. Zack Hunsicker tossed two innings to earn his first career win at UCF.
North Florida benefitted from some shaky defense to start the game, as the Knights allowed four runs on a trio of errors in the bottom of the first.
UCF cut the gap in half in the top of the second. After Jay Lyons reached on a fielding error, Tyler Osik launched a two-run home run to left center.
Starting pitcher Jaylyn Whitehead settled in after the opening inning to shut down the Ospreys. The southpaw mowed through the hosts’ lineup, retiring 12 of the next 13 batters, including the final eight. Whitehead finished his night after 4 1/3 innings of work with a pair of strikeouts. He worked around one walk and three hits to allow just one earned run.
Dallas Beaver cut the gap down to one in the fifth inning. Ben McCabe started the inning with a leadoff double and later scored on an RBI double by Beaver.
Two innings later, Beaver was at it again with an RBI groundout to tie the game. Gephry Pena, who entered the game as a pinch runner for Ben McCabe, made his way to third on a double by Ray Alejo. On the next at-bat, Beaver rolled a ground ball over to second to bring Pena in for the run.
The Ospreys regained the lead in the bottom half of the frame on a one-out single. Brandon Hernandez singlehandedly stopped the deficit from growing with a diving stop at short, tagging the runner at second and stepping on the base to turn the rare 6U double play.
Down to their last chance, the Knights quickly loaded the bases in the ninth following a walk to Anthony George and back-to-back hit by pitches by Adams Torres and Alejo. Beaver brought in the tying run on a five-pitch walk on the next at-bat.
Hunsicker took the mound in the bottom of the ninth and retired the side in order on 11 pitches. He needed only seven pitches in the bottom of the 10th to keep the Ospreys off the board.
In the bottom of the 11th, the Knights scored four runs on five hits. Dalton Wingo put the Black and Gold ahead for the first time all night on a single through the right side that brought Alejo in from third. Chandler Robertson tacked on an insurance run in the next at-bat with a sacrifice fly to right.
With runners in scoring position and two outs, George legged out an infield single and advanced to second due to an error, which plated a pair of runs.
George’s RBI proved to be the game-winning runs after North Florida pulled two runs back in the bottom of the 11th, before Garrett Westberg induced a pop fly to short to close the game.
UCF (27-18) – 9, North Florida (26-18) – 7
Winning pitcher: Zack Hunsicker (1-1)
Losing pitcher: Ethan Michaelis (3-5)
Top hitters: Dallas Beaver (3-5, 3 RBI, 1 BB, 1 R), Ray Alejo (3-5, 1 R), Dalton Wingo (2-6, 1 RBI, 1 R), Tyler Osik (1-5, 2 RBI, 1 R, 1 HR), Anthony George (1-5, 1 RBI, 1 R, 1 BB)
Top pitchers: Jaylyn Whitehead (4.1 IP, 2 K, 3 H, 4 R, 1 ER), Luis Ferrer (2.2 IP, 1 K, 4 H, 1 ER), Jack Sinclair (1.0 IP, 1 K, 2 H, 0 R), Zack Hunsicker (2.0 IP, 1 K, 0 H, 1 R)
NOTES
• The Knights notched their first win at North Florida since 2010.
• UCF totaled four extra-base hits in the game, including three doubles.
• Anthony George extended his hitting streak to five games, one shy of his career long.
• The Black and Gold picked up its first win when trailing after the eighth inning.
• UCF is now 4-1 in extra-inning games this season.
• Tuesday was Dallas Beaver’s team-leading 13th multi-RBI game of the year.
• Tyler Osik moved into a tie for the team lead in home runs with Dallas Beaver at eight.
• UCF is 11-1 in midweek games with three more midweek contests remaining in 2019.
UP NEXT
UCF will play its final road series of the regular season this weekend at Tulane. First pitch on Friday is set for 7:30 p.m. (ET).
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