ORLANDO – UCF baseball dropped a 12-3 decision against Troy Saturday afternoon at John Euliano Park, as the Trojans knotted the series at one game apiece heading into Sunday's series finale at 1 p.m.
It was a tough first inning for the Knights, as Troy plated 10 runs in the inning and UCF was forced to try and overcome the deficit throughout the remainder of the game.
Nick Vieira entered the game with one out and the bases loaded in the first. He allowed the only hit of his outing to his first batter faced and proceeded to retire the next nine hitters in order. In a career outing for Vieira, he set career highs in innings pitched (5.2) and strikeouts (6), with no runs and no walks.
Ben McCabe had the second multi-home run game of his season, hitting two to left field. With a solo shot and a two-run homer, McCabe tied Vince Zawaski's career record of 40 home runs. He also became the first Knight since Chris Duffy in 2010 to meet this mark. McCabe's homers drove in all three of the Knights' runs, his first scoring Andrew Brait who was on base from a double.
Troy scored two more in the ninth to bring the final score to 12-3.
The Knights will play the rubber-match game at 1 p.m. Sunday against the Trojans.