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Calabro’s Grand Slam Propels Knights to 7-4 Victory over UNF

by James Warnick
Box Score

ORLANDO – Senior outfielder Anthony Calabro belted out a go-ahead fifth-inning grand slam to lead UCF to a 7-4 midweek victory over North Florida on Tuesday night at John Euliano Park.

The win marks the Knights’ 30th of the season, as they improve to 30-15 with the victory. UCF has now won four in a row and swept the season series from UNF by taking all three games. The Knights also move to an impressive 11-1 in midweeks and 13-2 against in-state opponents on the year.

Down a run in the fifth, UCF got back-to-back-to-back hits from Jack Zyska, Andrew Sundean and Matt Prevesk to load the bases. The senior Calabro then got ahold of a belt-high breaking ball and pulled it out of the ballpark to left for the go-ahead grand slam. The round tripper marked Calabro’s second of the season and his first grand slam in a UCF uniform. It also put the Black and Gold on top for good, as the Knight bullpen was once again strong down the stretch by not surrendering an earned run over 7.0 innings of work.

“The swing felt great. I saw the pitch early out of the hand as it kind of just spun. I got a good swing on it and kind of knew it was gone,” Calabro said. “I was just trying to move the baseball and drive someone in. Lucky enough I got enough of it, and it went out of the park.”  

After UCF starter Wiley Hartley retired the side in just six pitches in the first inning, the Ospreys (20-25) picked up a two-run home run in the second from Gabriel Esquivel to take an early 2-0 lead.

The Knights answered right back, however, with three runs of their own in the bottom of the second to take a 3-2 advantage. The Black and Gold quickly loaded the bases with nobody out in the frame and Andrew Estrella drove in Prevesk for the first run by reaching on an error. Mikey Kluska then followed with an RBI single through the left side of the infield to bring in Calabro and Andrew Brait capped the scoring as Danny Neri came in on a groundout to give the Knights the lead.

UNF countered back with a pair of unearned runs in the fourth to take a 4-3 lead. Tyler Gerteisen and Esquivel each had RBI groundouts in the frame for the Ospreys.    

After strong relief work from seniors Najer Victor and Kyle Kramer, Calabro then gave the Knights the lead with the big grand slam in the last of the fifth.

UNF later threatened in the seventh by getting runners on the corners with two away, but UCF southpaw Dominic Castellano came on from the bullpen and retired the first guy he faced to strand the runners. North Florida again had a guy reach base in both the eighth and ninth frames, but Castellano and Kris Sosnowski stranded the runner each time to seal the victory for the Black and Gold.

Kramer picked up his seventh victory of the season to give him 14 over three seasons in a UCF uniform. Kramer tossed a pair of scoreless innings with four strikeouts to earn the win in relief. Sosnowski capped off the strong relief work by tossing a scoreless ninth to earn his third save. In all, the Black and Gold staff stuck out 12 batters in the ballgame. UNF’s Lance Bolton was tagged with the loss to drop to 0-4 on the year.

Offensively, Calabro went 2-for-4 with a season-high four RBIs. Brait and Prevesk each had three hits apiece, as Brait went 3-for-5 with a double while Prevesk finished 3-for-4 with two runs scored. Esquivel led UNF by driving in three of the team’s four runs.

The Knights will continue their final homestand of the season with a key Big 12 series against No. 18 Texas this weekend. It will mark the first time in program history that the Longhorns will visit John Euliano Park and will run Friday to Sunday (Friday at 6 p.m., Saturday at 6 p.m., Sunday at 1 p.m.). All three games will air live on Big 12 Now on ESPN+ and Saturday’s contest will mark Senior Knight for the Black and Gold.