ORLANDO – UCF baseball had a frustrating day on the diamond Saturday afternoon, as Georgia Southern earned a 19-7 win to even the series at one apiece and set up a decisive game three on Sunday at John Euliano Park.
The Eagles plated 11 runs in the first inning and led the rest of the way, as the Knights used three pitchers trying to get out of the inning.
Andrew Brait scored UCF's first run of the game in the bottom half of the first after Ben McCabe reached on a Georgia Southern throwing error.
The Eagles added five more in the third and fourth innings, before Andrew Sundean hit his first home run of the season in the bottom of the fourth and Lex Boedicker followed a few pitches later with a homer to right center field.
In the fifth inning, both teams added a run after sacrifice fly to push across the Eagles' run and a Tom Josten double and a Cole Russo allowed Josten to score from second base.
The Knights hoped for a big inning in the sixth with three consecutive singles from Corey Robinson, Brady Shannon and Matt Cedarburg to load the bases but they were only able to push across three runs to cut into the deficit. Greg Pettay earned the first hit of his collegiate career in the bottom of the eighth inning, but Georgia Southern scored two more in the ninth to bring the final tally to 19-7.
The rubber match begins at 1 p.m. on Sunday at John Euliano Park.