ORLANDO – The UCF baseball team closed out the series against Dartmouth with a sweep Sunday, defeating the Big Green 5-2. The Knights held Dartmouth to just five hits and continued their offensive production from the previous contests to extend their win streak to five games.
The Big Green got on the board early, getting two runs on two hits and two walks in the top of the first. The Knights answered with three runs of their own in the bottom half of the inning, highlighted by a two-RBI single from Andrew Sundean that scored Andrew Brait and Tom Josten, who were on base from a single and a walk respectively. A sacrifice fly from Drew Faurot brought in Ben McCabe, putting UCF up 3-2 after one.
Cameron Leiter wrapped up his two-inning appearance with a scoreless top half of the second inning, yielding only one hit. The UCF offense continued to show up through the second, with another RBI single from Sundean to drive in Josten. The RBI marked the 18th of the season for the sophomore, as well as his sixth-straight game with a hit.
Both of Dartmouth's runs were contained in the first inning, as the UCF defense shut the Big Green down through the remaining eight. Huge defensive plays including an over the shoulder catch from Lex Boedicker in the first, a diving stop by Faurot, and a catch into the Big Green dugout from McCabe gave the pitching staff the assistance they needed to hold the Big Green to two runs. The pitching staff was also dominant, with a combined 10 strikeouts and surrendering only five hits.
Dom Stagliano threw 5.0 innings for the Knights, topping off his performance from earlier this week. After starting last Tuesday, the sophomore had a highly efficient outing in relief, going five innings with five strikeouts, throwing just 50 pitches and allowing two hits. Dominic Castellano and Kyle Kramer each pitched an inning, surrendering zero hits and earning two strikeouts each. Kramer earned his fifth save of the season and the 11th of his career, he now sits at 9th most all-time in UCF history.
McCabe topped off the scoring for the Black and Gold, adding one more in the bottom of the sixth on a single to third base to score Andrew Brait.
With a final score of 5-2, UCF takes their fifth-straight win and sweeps their second series of the week.
The Knights will head on the road for the first time this month as they travel to Jacksonville, Fla. for the second of three midweek meetings with North Florida at 6:05 p.m. on Tuesday looking to extend their win streak to six games.
