ORLANDO – The UCF baseball team dropped the second game of the weekend to the Maryland Terrapins, evening the series 1-1.
Getting off to an early lead, Maryland plated its first run on an RBI single from right fielder Matt Woods. The Terrapins added another one in the top of the second as Ian Petrutz led off the inning with a standup double down the right line and Ethan Hacopian doubled down the left line to score Petrutz.
John Rhys Plumlee evened the score 2-2 in the third with a two-run home run to left center field. His fifth home run of the season scored Brady Shannon, who was on base following a single.
Maryland took back its lead with a 4-run fourth inning to answer, scoring on two RBI doubles from Jacob Orr and Luke Shliger and a two-run home run by Nick Lorusso.
Drew Faurot added two more runs on his seventh home run of the season in the bottom of the fourth to bring the Knights back within two. Adding two RBI to his total, Faurot took the team-lead with 22 on his freshman season.
The Terps had another multi-run inning, tacking on three more runs for a 9-4 ballgame.
Tom Josten drew a four-pitch walk to lead off the Knights' half of the fifth. With two away, Romano scored Josten on a stand-up double to bring the score to 9-5.
The Knights got one back in the seventh inning as Romano got his second RBI of the night, scoring Ben McCabe for UCF's sixth run.
Maryland added six more runs in the final four innings, bringing its hit total for the game to 18. The final score of the contest was 16-6.
The Knights and Terrapins will go head-to-head in the series finale at 1 p.m. on Sunday, the winner will take the series.