ORLANDO – UCF baseball came up short in the series finale against the Troy Trojans, 5-4, Sunday afternoon at John Euliano Park.
After splitting the first two games of the series, the Knights struck first on Sunday after a sacrifice fly from Andrew Sundean to score Andrew Brait, who singled earlier in the inning.
John Rhys Plumlee homered to center field in the bottom of the second to put the Knights up 2-0 on his second home run of the series and third of the season. The UCF center fielder drove the first pitch of his at-bat against Troy's Grayson Stewart over the wall in center.
The Trojans plated one run in the third inning after an RBI single from Ethan Kavanagh and scored twice in the top of the fourth to take their first lead, 3-2. William Sullivan and Shane Lewis hit back-to-back solo home runs.
In a back-and-forth game, Lex Boedicker scored on a wild pitch in the bottom of the fourth and Drew Faurot scored on an error by the catcher, as the Knights regained the lead, 4-3.
Troy capitalized on UCF's defensive miscues to push across a pair of unearned runs in the top of the seventh to take a 5-4 lead. The Knights looked to answer in the bottom of the inning, as the bases were loaded with one out but a swinging strikeout and a fielder's choice followed to end the inning.
In the bottom of the ninth, the Knights had a runners at first and second base with one out, but a hard-hit ball back up the middle was snagged by Troy pitcher Noah Manning, who started the game-ending double play.
Frehsman Cam Leiter started on the mound for UCF and pitched four innings with seven strikeouts before giving way to Najer Victor, who was charged with the loss after yielding a pair of unearned runs. Kyle Kramer closed out the game for the Knights, pitching two scoreless innings.
Troy reliever Logan Ross earned the win with two scoreless innings and Manning nailed down his fourth save.
UP NEXT
No. 21 Florida State will visit John Euliano Park for a two-game midweek series 6 p.m. Tuesday, March 14 and 4 p.m. Wednesday, March 15. Then, the Knights will host Dartmouth to conclude their 12-game homestand. The three-game series will be played 6 p.m. Friday, March 17, 6 p.m. Saturday, March 18 and 1 p.m. Sunday, March 19.