UCF Knights lose three-straight heartbreakers

It was every hitter’s dream. Entering the bottom of the ninth against East Carolina Sunday afternoon, the UCF baseball team was down 6-2 with just one inning left at the plate when the rally began. By the time Logan Heiser was called in to pinch hit, eight Knights had made it to the batter’s box, and three had scored.

Now they only needed one more run to tie it all up with the East Carolina Pirates. The potential winning run was standing on second base. Bases loaded, bottom of the ninth, two outs. After letting a strike sneak by him, Heiser watched the Pirates’ Parker Thomas unload pitch No. 2, then smashed it toward right field.

When the ball landed, the Knights were 26-19 overall, 5-10 in the American Athletic Conference, and deep into the AAC’s longest active losing streak, having just been swept by the Pirates. The final score of the final game: 6-5. The last hit, with the bases loaded, landed in right fielder Eric Tyler’s glove.

One bright spot for the Knights: senior James Vasquez, who went three-for-five on the night, recorded his 200th hit in his college career. But it wasn’t enough for the Knights, who dropped their third heartbreakingly close loss in a row.

The combined runs stat line for the three-game series read 15-12. Only three runs separated the two teams in the entire series, yet the Knights lost all three games. Game one, which the Knights tied with a wild three-run comeback in the eighth, ended with a walk-off single by the Pirates in the bottom of the ninth. Adding to the pain, the next two games ended with a Knights rally that fell short in the final at bat.

The five-game losing streak has propelled the Knights down to the second-worst record in the conference as they approach a home showdown against I-4 rival USF. The Bulls are in a four-way tie for the best record in the AAC despite having dropped two games in their recent series against Houston.

Lucky for the Knights, the Bulls (28-16-1, 9-6) have one of the worst road records in the conference, at 6-9. The last time the teams met, in April of last season, the Knights took the three-game series.

The series begins at 6:30 p.m. Friday at UCF. Game two is at 4 p.m. Saturday, followed by the finale at 11 a.m. Sunday.

Rollins baseball

The Tars’ final game against Lynn lasted so long that it had to be cut short as an 11-11 tie because Lynn’s stadium had no lights to play into the night. The slugfest that comprised the previous 10 innings would end on a thud as the game came to an abrupt non-conclusion and left the series tied up. The Tars had trounced Lynn in game two, 14-6, thanks to home runs by Blake Hutton, Chris Corbett and Peter Nicoletto. In game one, Lynn had won 13-8, despite the four-for-five performance by right fielder Skip Kovar, who hit four singles but drove in his only run on a fly-out.

The Tars face their final series on the road at Tampa, with hopes of reviving their languishing season at 20-26-1 overall and 5-15-1 in the Sunshine State Conference. Game one starts at 6 p.m. Friday, followed by a 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. doubleheader on Saturday.