ORLANDO – South Florida rallied with three runs in the seventh inning and managed to hold on late to hand UCF its first loss of the season by a score of 7-5 on Saturday night at John Euliano Park.
Despite suffering the loss, the Knights (7-1) will look to take the series over the rival Bulls (5-4) in the rubber match on Sunday afternoon.
“We were in that game until the very last pitch. We had moments offensively where we had shots, but just couldn’t manage to get it done,” head UCF coach Rich Wallace said. “We’ll regroup and figure out a way to come back ready to go tomorrow (Sunday).”
Trailing 3-0 in the third, UCF managed to load the bases with one away. Andrew Sundean then drove in the Black and Gold’s first run of the game with an RBI groundout to the right side to bring home Matt Prevesk and make it a 3-1 contest.
With starter Tyler Nesbitt having settled down and pitching well on the mound, the Knight offense rallied for four runs in the last of the fourth to take a 5-3 advantage. With two on and one out, Andrew Estrella drove home Mikey Kluska from second with an RBI double to right center to make it 3-2. Matt Prevesk then followed by crushing a three-run home run down the rightfield line to give the Knights the 5-3 lead. The homer marked Prevesk’s first in a UCF uniform and was a no-doubt big fly into the Orlando night.
USF then got a run back in the sixth and scored three more in the seventh to take a 7-5 lead. The Bulls loaded the bases in the seventh and Ben Rozenblum brought home the tying run with a sac fly to deadlock the score at 5-5. John Montes then followed with the big hit with a two-out two-run single to center to give South Florida the lead.
UCF got men into scoring position in each of the last three innings, but the USF bullpen managed to escape each jam. In the last of the ninth, Lex Boedicker started things off with a leadoff single. Sundean then reached on a fielder’s choice and Jack Zyska followed with a single to right to put the tying runners on the base paths with one away. Chandler Dorsey then entered on the mound for the Bulls and retired the next two UCF batters he faced to put the game away.
Despite suffering the loss, Boedicker had a three-hit game for the Black and Gold (3-for-5), while Prevesk, Zyska and Estrella all had two hits apiece. Drew Brutcher paced the South Florida offense by going 4-for-5 with a double and two runs scored.
USF reliever Joey Volini earned the win to improve to 1-0 on the year after tossing an inning and a third of scoreless action. Dorsey recorded the final two outs in the ninth to earn his first save. UCF used a total of seven different pitchers in the contest and reliever Najer Victor was tagged with the loss to drop to 0-1. Wiley Hartley, Nick Vieira and Kris Sosnowski all had scoreless outings for the Black and Gold.
The Knights and Bulls will close the weekend series on Sunday at 1 p.m. The ballgame will air live on Big 12 Now on ESPN+. Next week, UCF will head to Gainesville to face No. 4 Florida on Wednesday night. The Black and Gold will then open Big 12 Conference play March 8-10 at Oklahoma.