ORLANDO – The 20th-ranked UCF baseball team got an eighth-inning home run from Jack Zyska to pull within a run in the late innings, but it wasn’t enough as Kansas State managed to hold on to defeat the Black and Gold by a score of 4-3 on Saturday night at John Euliano Park.
With each team having won a game apiece on the weekend, the rubber match is set for Sunday at 1 p.m. in the series finale. Sunday will mark 407 Day at John Euliano Park.
“Their starter (Owen Boerema) is a tough look. We did a good job of driving his pitch count up and had some opportunities. I told the guys that we were one swing away, but we just didn’t get the job done,” head UCF coach Rich Wallace said. “We need to get up in the morning and find a way to go out and win the series.”
The Wildcats (20-9, 7-4 Big 12) broke a scoreless tie in the third with two runs to take a 2-0 lead. Raphael Pelletier had the first hit of the night with a solo home run to right and KSU manufactured another run to take the early two-run advantage.
The Knights (20-8, 7-7 Big 12) struck back with two runs of their own in the bottom of the fourth to tie the game at 2-2. Lex Boedicker picked up UCF’s first hit of the contest with a one-out single and Zyska promptly drove him home with an RBI double down the leftfield line to make it 2-1. With Zyska on third following a KSU throwing error, Danny Neri plated him with an RBI groundout to deadlock the score.
Following a scoreless fifth, K-State answered with a pair of runs in the sixth to regain the lead at 4-2. The Wildcats loaded the bases with one away and Kaelen Culpepper got hit by a pitch to bring in the go-ahead run. Nick English then followed with a sacrifice fly to give KSU the 4-2 advantage.
Kansas State again loaded the bases in the seventh, but UCF reliever Spencer Bauer managed to pitch out of it as Lex Boedcker was a nice grab on a hard-hit line drive off the bat of Brady Day and quickly stepped on the bag at first for an inning-ending double play.
With two outs in the last of the eighth, the senior Zyska hit a solo bomb out to left to make it a one-run game at 4-3. Neri followed by ripping a two-out double to right to put the tying run into scoring position, but KSU’s Jackson Wentworth responded with an inning-ending strikeout to send it to the ninth.
With two come-from-behind walk-off wins over the last couple of weeks, the Knights were again hoping for some ninth-inning magic in the last of the ninth. But Preseason All-American Tyson Neighbors came on and managed to retire the Black and Gold in order to secure the victory for the Wildcats.
KSU starter Owen Boerema went 6.0 innings and gave up just two runs on three hits while striking up seven to improve to 3-2 on the year. Neighbors earned his second save after tossing a perfect ninth. Despite surrendering just three hits over five-plus innings, UCF’s Dom Stagliano was tagged with the loss to fall to 1-2. Spencer Bauer and Kris Sosnowski pitched well in relief for the Knights, as the duo combined to allow just two hits and no earned runs charged to them over the final four innings.
Zyska paced UCF offensively in the ballgame by going 2-for-4 with a homer and a double, two runs scored, and two runs batted in. Chuck Ingram paced K-State by going 1-for-2 with an RBI, a run scored and two walks, while Pelleteir went 1-for-3 with a home run.
UCF, who is ranked 20th this week by Perfect Game and 25th by D1Baseball, has still won seven of its last nine ballgames despite dropping Saturday’s contest.
The Knights will look to win their fourth straight Big 12 series on Sunday at 1 p.m. Following Sunday’s finale, UCF will head to DeLand to face Stetson in midweek action on Wednesday, April 10. The Black and Gold will then head to the Mountain State for a Big 12 Conference series at West Virginia next weekend.