ORLANDO - UCF baseball tallied a new season-high for strikeouts but was defeated 2-0 by Central Michigan in the first of three non-conference games on Friday night at John Euliano Park.
CMU’s Ben Vitas recorded a complete-game shutout for the Chippewas, as he surrendered just five hits and struck out a batter over 9.0 full innings of work. Vitas tossed 133 pitches on the night en route to recording the victory to move to 2-4 on the season. It marked the first time UCF has been shut out on the season.
“They played good defense and we did not get it done offensively,” said head coach Rich Wallace. “Their starter out-competed us and pitched his tail off on the mound. The at-bats were not our usual quality and we couldn’t get it done.”
The Knights’ (22-13, 8-10 Big 12) pitching staff had a strong performance on the evening racking up 14 strikeouts, besting a previous single-game high of 13 that was set in the season opener against Bryant. Starting pitcher Ben Vespi recorded half of the strikeouts to match his season-high of seven over 5.0 innings of work. Spencer Bauer and Kyle Kramer tossed solid relief, as they did not allow any hits over the final four innings. Bauer went 2.1 innings and struck out four while Kramer tossed the final inning and two thirds and fanned three.
The Chippeswas (13-25, 5-13 MAC) had a fast start to the game as Nick Dardas started things off with a leadoff home run. Vespi responded with two back-to-back strikeouts. With two runners on base, Vespi struck out the CMU’s Marquis Jackson to end the top of the first inning.
Both pitchers had a strong second inning, not allowing any runs. Dardas scored Central Michigan’s second run of the evening in the top of the third. He walked, advanced to third on a single from Jacob Donahue, and scored on sacrifice fly from Ely Stuart. That marked the final run that the Black and Gold allowed, however, as they managed to hold the Chippewas scoreless for the remainder of the contest.
UCF had a runner reach third base in the first and second innings, but each time CMU’s Vitas managed to escape the jam. The Knights later got two runners aboard in the fifth, as Andrew Brait reached on an error and Matt Prevesk walked, but Vitas drew an inning-ending fly out. UCF later got a two-out hit from AJ Nessler in the seventh and a leadoff hit from Braden Calise in the ninth, but again Vitas managed to escape each jam to earn the complete-game victory.
Calise led the Black and Gold offensively by going 2-for-4, while Andrew Williamson went 1-for-3 with a double. Stuart led the Chippewas by going 2-for-3 with an RBI and Dardas finished 1-for-4 with a home run and two runs scored.
The Knights will look to bounce back on Saturday as the series continues. Saturday’s contest is set for 6 p.m. while Sunday's finale will begin at 12 p.m. Live audio will be available for Saturday’s contest by visiting UCFKnights.com while Sunday will air live on Big 12 Now on ESPN+.