ORLANDO, Fla. – Powered by three home runs, UCF baseball defeated the Troy Trojans 5-3 in the series opener Friday. Ben McCabe hit his team-leading eighth home run of the season as Ruddy Gomez struck out 11 batters over 7.2 innings of work.
The Trojans and the Knights exchanged zeroes until McCabe came up with nobody on to lead off the bottom half of the second inning. On the 0-2 pitch, McCabe rocketed a home run to left center field for his eighth of the year, giving the Knights the 1-0 lead. McCabe's eighth home run in 12 games gave him the sole team lead and ties him for eighth in the nation in home runs. McCabe's home run also marked his 38th all-time, moving closer to Bobby Kiser and all-time record of 43
A single and an error gave Troy two runners on with two outs in the third inning. On the first pitch he saw from Gomez, William Sullivan homered to right center for a three-run shot, putting the Trojans ahead 3-1.
The action picked back up for UCF as John Rhys Plumlee drove a Brady Miller pitch over the left field fence for the second home run of the night, bringing the team within one. With runners on the corners and two out, a wild pitch led to Drew Faurot scoring from third, knotting the game up at three.
After three strikeouts by Gomez concluded the top half of the sixth for Troy, Andrew Sundean led off the Knights' half of the inning with a double to left field. Next batter was Lex Boedicker who then took an 0-1 pitch deep to right, giving UCF the 5-3 lead.
Gomez who had 11 strikeouts on the night set a career-high in both strikeouts and innings pitched.
Kyle Kramer came in to get the final four outs for the Knights, a no-hit performance complete with two strikeouts – adding to the night's total of 13 strikeouts. The Knights take first game of the series 5-3.
UCF and Troy will continue their three-game series at 4 p.m. Saturday as UCF looks to take the series as Citronauts. The Knights will return to conclude the series at 1 p.m. Sunday at John Euliano Park.
