Baseball Falls in Extras Innings to Cincinnati, 7-6Baseball Falls in Extras Innings to Cincinnati, 7-6

Baseball Falls in Extras Innings to Cincinnati, 7-6

by James Warnick
Box Score

CINCINNATI – UCF took the lead in the top of the 10th, but Cincinnati responded with two runs of its own in the bottom of the inning to earn a 7-6 extra-inning Big 12 Conference victory on Saturday afternoon at UC Baseball Stadium.

With the game all tied up at 5-5 after nine innings of play, Andrew Williamson led off the 10th for the Knights with a double. He then moved to third on a sacrifice bunt from Lex Boedicker and scored on a sac fly from Kendrey Maduro to give the Black and Gold a 6-5 lead. The Bearcats countered by loading the bases in the last of the 10th with one away. Carter Stanford then came on in relief for UCF and struck out the first batter he faced for the second out, but UC’s Landyn Vidourek hit a walk-off two-run single up the middle to propel Cincinnati to the victory.

The Knights fall to 17-9 overall and 3-5 in Big 12 play with the setback, while UC moves to 15-11 and 3-5 in league play with the win. Cincinnati also clinched the series with the victory. The Black and Gold will look to salvage a game on the weekend in the series finale on Sunday at noon.

In a back-and-forth game early on, the Bearcats struck first with an unearned run in the bottom of the opening inning to take a 1-0 advantage. Despite giving up the early run, UCF starter Dom Stagliano did a nice job of limiting the damage that inning by stranding a pair of base runners by drawing three straight outs.

The Knights then answered with a pair of runs in the top of the second to a take a 2-1 advantage. Boedicker singled, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt from Maduro and scored on an RBI single from Andrew Sundean. Following a Matt Prevesk single and a Braden Calise fielder’s choice, DeAmez Ross then hit a ball hard on the right side of the infield that Sundean managed to score on to give the Black and Gold the lead.

UC countered with two runs of its own in the bottom of the second to regain the lead at 3-2. Kerrington Cross had a sacrifice fly, and the second run of the frame scored on a wild pitch. The Black and Gold didn’t waste any time responding, however, as Andrew Williamson hit a solo home run to straight away centerfield to deadlock the score at 3-3. Williamson’s big fly marked his team-leading sixth of the season.

The UCF offense again got things going in the top of the fifth to retake the lead. Ross led things off with a single up the middle to extend his hitting streak and Antonio Jimenez followed with a go-ahead two-run home run to left field to give the Black and Gold a 5-3 advantage. The no-doubt round tripper marked Jimenez’s fourth of the season and traveled 395 feet.

After a strong relief outing from UCF’s Angelo Smith in which he went 2.2 innings, he allowed his first hit via a leadoff double from Cross in the bottom of the seventh. Cross later moved to third on a groundout and scored on a wild pitch to make it 5-4. Vidourek worked a one-out walk that inning and stole second to get into scoring position. He then scored to tie things up on a two-out RBI single from Christian Mitchelle.

The Knights looked to have a golden opportunity to score in the top of the eighth by getting runners on the corners with nobody out after Boedicker was hit by a pitch and Maduro reached on a sacrifice bunt throwing error. But Cincinnati’s Rodney Shultz managed to pitch out of it by drawing three straight groundouts to keep it a 5-5 contest.

The Bearcats threatened in the bottom of the eighth by getting two men on the base paths with one away, but Spencer Bauer stranded the runners with a flyout followed by an inning-ending strikeout to send it to the ninth all knotted up.

After a scoreless top of the ninth, Bauer continued to pitch well for the Knights in relief by pitching around a two-out hit to send it to the 10th. The Bearcats would then go on to win it in the bottom of the 10th.

UC’s Chase Horst was credited with the win to move to 1-0 on the year while UCF’s Bauer was tagged with the loss to drop to 0-1.

Williamson led the Black and Gold at the plate on the day by going 2-for-5 with a homer, a double, an RBI and two runs scored, while Boedicker went 2-for-3 with a double and a run scored. Jimenez also finished 1-for-5 with a home run and two runs batted in. Vidourek paced Cincinnati by going 3-for-4 with two walks and three runs batted in.

The Knights and Bearcats will conclude the weekend series on Sunday at noon ET. The game will air live on ESPN+ as well as FM 96.9 The Game. Following Sunday’s finale, UCF will return to Orlando to open a four-game homestand against Stetson on Tuesday at 6 p.m.