ORLANDO - Complete with three home runs and four-RBI nights by both Andrew Sundean and Nick Romano, the UCF baseball team took down the No. 21 Florida State Seminoles 14-3 on Tuesday night at John Euliano Park.
"Today was awesome, I mean we just did everything right—all three phases," Coach Lovelady said. "[It was] huge [to] get back on the winning side of things and remember what playing well really looks like."
The Knights scored first in Tuesday's contest. With two on and one out, designated hitter Sundean singled to left for the 1-0 lead. Later in the inning Drew Faurot added an RBI single making it 2-0 UCF. Romano was next up and hit his third home run of the year, a three-run shot to close out a five-run first for the Knights.
With two away in the second, Sundean singled in a run, his second RBI of the night. Another run came around to score on a wild pitch, extending the Knights' lead to 7-0 going into the third.
After two quiet innings, UCF picked up the scoring again the fifth, doubling their lead with seven runs. After a double by Lex Boedicker, Romano brought him home with a double down the right field line, his fourth RBI of the night. With two outs, John Rhys Plumlee added another double, this time down the left field line, to plate Romano from second, bringing the score to 9-0.
Andrew Brait reached on an error to extend the inning for Tom Josten. On a 3-1 pitch, Josten capitalized on the Seminoles error in with his eighth home run of the year and the second three-run shot of the night for UCF. With Ben McCabe on second, Sundean hit the Knights' second home run of the inning, to give the Knights a 14-0 lead over the Seminoles.
FSU got two runs back in the top of the sixth, as James Tibbs III singled in Jordan Carrion, who tripled to start the inning. Nander De Sedas then doubled down the right field line to score Tibbs III to make it 14-2 UCF. Then in the eighth, the Seminoles tacked on the final run of the game on an RBI groundout by Jaime Ferrer, making it 14-3.
Dom Stagliano's seven inning performance complete with seven strikeouts tied his career high in both categories. Stagliano threw six scoreless frames, allowing five hits, two runs and no walks.
"It's one game. We've played and won big games already. Baseball is a crazy sport – one game to the next – we've got to come out tomorrow and win the first pitch [and] bring that same type of energy," Lovelady said.
The Knights will play Florida State in the second midweek matchup at 4 p.m. Wednesday in another sold out game at John Euliano Park.
