UCF baseball dominates USF

Continuing their tradition of losing to bad teams and beating good teams, the UCF baseball team took a three-game series against USF last weekend, but not before letting the final game get out of hand in a 9-3 blowout.

Deploying star pitcher Zach Rodgers in their first game to preemptively cool off the Bulls’ bats, the Knights watched their No. 1 in the rotation pitch an eight-inning, 10-strikeout scoreless gem for his eighth win of the year. Harrison Hukari would come in for the save in the ninth, ending it in 17 pitches Friday night.

James Vasquez and Erik Barber each launched their seventh homeruns of the year on back-to-back shots over the right field wall in the second inning, immediately handing the Knights all the runs they’d need to take game one 3-0.

It was more of a battle in game two as Cre Finfrock held the Bulls to only a run from the mound, but watched the Knights struggle to score until breaking it open in the seventh inning with the deciding run. Finfrock would pitch a complete game, giving up just six hits to bring his record to 7-4 on the season. Back-to-back deep fly balls got Dylan Moore around the bases for the winning score in the 2-1 game.

The story flipped on the Knights for the third game. After only needing three pitchers to win the previous two games, they burned six in just one outing in the series finale. Only Spencer Davis and Drew Faintich would emerge from the game without a run against them. A two-RBI double by Dylan Moore would be the only run-scoring hit of the day for the Knights, who fell 9-3 Sunday.

The result of the series is a UCF team that’s 28-20 overall and 7-11 in the American Athletic Conference, keeping them a game above the conference basement. With the pair of losses USF dropped to 29-18 overall and 10-8 in the AAC, dropping them out of the conference lead.

After a brief stopover at Florida Atlantic during press time the Knights return home for their final series in their home stadium, hosting Memphis for three games. The Tigers, at 32-15, boast the strongest overall record in the conference, and an AAC record of 10-8.

Their first game starts at 6:30 p.m. Friday, followed by 4 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. Sunday.

Rollins baseball

The Tars spent their final weekend on the baseball diamond winning a slugfest, losing another one, then getting destroyed by a bigger margin than they’ve suffered all year.

Rollins’ Evan Rivera blasted a bases-clearing double for his three RBI of game one, while pitchers Matt Tulley and Matt Hendricks gave up 11 runs but still helped the Tars win.

Game two was all tied up at nine runs in the bottom of the ninth after the Tars came up with two in the top of the frame to stay alive. That didn’t last long as relief pitcher Isaiah Sakany got in trouble then watched a sacrifice fly turn into a walk-off win to end it 10-9.

The final game may have been the biggest come-from-behind loss in Rollins baseball history. By midway through the second inning, the Tars were up 2-0. By the end of the next half of the inning, they had already given up every run Tampa would need to win. It was just beginning.

By the time Rollins pitcher Adam Ogburn was pulled midway through Tampa’s second inning rally, the Tars had already given up six runs. Half of Rollins’ pitchers would give up a run for every two batters faced, or worse. In three rallies the Spartans nearly batted around the order three times. The final two frames Tampa came to the plate were a deathblow, scoring the final eight runs of what was already an 11-3 blowout at the time.

In the game, the Spartans would smash 24 hits; eight of them were homeruns. For the Tars, who gave up a 19-5 loss in their final game, their season ended at 21-28-1 overall and 6-17-1 in the Sunshine State Conference.