Knights fight long slump

A frustrating 8-7 loss felled the Knights in their most recent bid to snap a losing streak that started March 30 at Southern Miss. Five games into it, the Knights (18-15, 4-5) are looking for a turnaround at press time Wednesday.

Adding to the frustration of the Knights’ longest losing streak of the year, four of the five losses were by a margin of two runs or less.

They almost had it against Memphis (18-13, 5-4), leading the game until the bottom of the fifth, then tying it up again in the eighth thanks to the heroics of Chris Taladay, who had four two-out RBIs in the game. But a bottom of the eighth double lifted the Tigers by just one run, and enough for the win.

Wednesday the Knights faced Interstate 4 rival USF (18-14) in a grudge match at press time. The Knights lost to USF Feb. 26 in their only other meeting this year. Next season the two will be in the same conference, the newly formed American Athletic Conference.

After that game the Knights travel all the way to Houston for a three-game series at Rice (23-11, 6-3), starting at 7:30 p.m. Friday. It’ll be another shot at revenge for the Knights, who lost two out of three to the Owls last season when they met in Orlando.

They’ll be looking to leverage more offense on the final swing of their long road trip, with the burden seemingly on the shoulders of Taladay, who is 12th in the nation in hits so far this season. He’s closing in on the seventh spot in all-time hits for the Knights.

When the Knights return home, they’ll be playing host for eight straight games, starting with Florida Atlantic (21-11) on April 16. The last time the two teams met, on April 17 of last season, the Knights crushed the Owls 12-3.

By the time the Knights are finished hosting conference rivals Marshall and Houston, they’ll be just two conference series away from the C-USA Tournament in Houston. But between this week and the start of the playoffs, they have plenty of time to catch up in the standings.