ORLANDO – The UCF Baseball team (14-5) plated an impressive nine runs in the eighth inning of game two to secure the three-game series win over the Dartmouth Big Green (1-10) with a final score of 12-10.
Scoring on an RBI single in the first inning and a home run in the third, the Big Green jumped out to a 2-0 lead early and held their lead until the bottom of the eighth inning. Dartmouth's Jack Metzger pitched a three-run, five-hit game through a career-long seven innings, shutting down the Knights offense for most of the game.
Drew Faurot led off the third inning with a double to left center field and John Rhys Plumlee put the Knights on the board, driving in Faurot with a single to left field.
Connor Bertsch added another home run for the Big Green, leading off the fourth inning. Dartmouth plated another on an error and extended its lead to 4-1.
In the bottom of the fourth, Ben McCabe singled to left field with Andrew Sundean on deck. Sundean took a 1-1 pitch deep for his third home run of the season to bring the Knights within one.
Dartmouth added two more on an RBI double and a Knights' error to restore its three-run lead in the fifth. The Big Green plated two in the sixth on a Milo Suarez single and scored on a passed ball in the top of the eighth to jump out to a six-run lead, 9-3.
Trailing six heading into the bottom of the eighth, the Knights' broke out their highest-scoring inning of the season as the offense plated nine runs to complete the comeback. This was the most single inning runs since opening night against Siena, where they scored eight in the sixth inning.
Andrew Brait drew a walk, Tom Josten singled, and McCabe was hit by a pitch to load the bases in the eighth. Three consecutive bases-loaded RBI singles from Sundean, Lex Boedicker, and Nick Romano, plated three and kept the bases loaded. Faurot was the second Knight hit by a pitch in the inning, this time for a run, scoring Sundean. Batting around the lineup, Plumlee drew a bases-loaded walk reaching base for the second time in the inning and scored Boedicker.
For the final time in the bottom of the eighth, a batter stepped up to the plate with the bases loaded. Brait hit a towering grand slam to left field to seal the game for the Knights, running up the Knights scoring in the inning to nine, for a 12-9 lead. The go-ahead grand slam was the first home run of Brait's career.
In the top of the ninth, Dartmouth's Luke Carroll added the final run of the contest with the Big Green's third home run of the game, doubling their home run total on the season, to bring the score to 12-10 Knights.
The Knights and Big Green will conclude the series 1 p.m. Sunday as UCF looks to sweep its second series of the week and extend its win streak to five games before going on the road Tuesday.