Baseball Drops Series to No. 12 ECU

GREENVILLE, N.C.– The UCF baseball team (17-14, 1-4 AAC) was swept in the series-opening doubleheader against the East Carolina Pirates (23-8, 3-2 AAC) at Clark-LeClair Stadium on Thursday.
 
Game One
The Knights fell in game one with a final score of 17-7 in seven innings.

ECU's Trey Yesavage pitched five lights-out innings to begin the series, not allowing a hit until the sixth inning. Over the first five innings, the Pirates' offense also got off to a hot start, scoring 12 across three multi-run innings.

UCF's first three hits of the game were back-to-back-to-back home runs by Nick Romano, Andrew Sundean, and Lex Boedicker to get the Knights on the board. Romano scored Tom Josten, who had walked, and the solo shots from Sundean and Boedicker made it 12-4.

The Knights added their second big inning in the seventh, scoring three more. Corey Robinson and John Rhys Plumlee doubled back-to-back, and Tom Josten followed with a towering home run to left center to cut into the Pirates' lead 12-7.

ECU heated up in the seventh to score five. Carter Cunningham scored the final run of the contest on a walk-off wild pitch to force the run rule.
 
Game Two
ECU got off to another hot start in the second game, scoring nine runs in the bottom of the second inning. The Pirates added one more in the fifth on an RBI double to jump out to a 10-0 lead over the Knights.

Ben McCabe led off the sixth inning with a single for the Knights. Andrew Sundean hit his fifth home run of the season and his second of the day to plate McCabe and open the scoring for the Knights.

UCF got two more across in the seventh as the Knights loaded the bases in the top of the seventh on a double down the left line from Drew Faurot, an Andrew Brait walk, and a Ben McCabe hit by pitch. Tom Josten drew a bases-loaded walk and Romano singled to the shortstop to score Brait and bring the score to 10-4.

ECU plated one more in the seventh inning following three singles, the third an RBI single from Ryley Johnson to score Alec Makarewicz.

Josten doubled down the left field line to score McCabe for the final run of the day, bringing the contest to its final score of 11-5.
 
The Knights and Pirates will conclude the series at 12 p.m. on Friday, April 7 as UCF looks to avoid the weekend sweep.