UCF lost 5-3 Tuesday night to the nationally ranked Florida Gators, moving to .500 on the year and on their home turf.
Southpaw Brian Adkins got the start for the Knights, and gave up three earned runs over 5.2 innings while striking out 3 and walking none. Adkins served up an early lead to the Gators, allowing a run to score off a sacrifice fly in the first, and then putting a mistake pitch in Vickash Ramjit’s power zone, as the Florida first baseman crushed a solo home run to right field to start the second inning.
Adkins settled down after the home run, allowing only one more earned run to cross the plate before being pulled in the sixth inning in favor of righty Zac Favre, who came in just to close out the sixth. Two unearned runs were put on the board when Chris Taladay underthrew his toss to first and Vazquez was not able to dig it out.
It wasn’t until the bottom of the sixth that the Knights were able to produce any offense. First baseman James Vasquez kick started the run production with a solo shot of his own to right field, the first of his career.
Austin Johnson followed up Vasquez’s bomb with a double, and was brought home by shortstop Tommy William’s RBI single. The two runs put the Knights in a great position for a feasible come back, closing the gap to 5-2.
The last real threat to Florida’s lead came in the seventh inning, when right fielder Eric Hempe was able to advance to third from first on a wild pitch. Taladay brought home the Anaheim native with an RBI ground-out.
Neither team made any progress in the final innings, and Florida was able to survive the late game surge by UCF to hold on to a 5-3 victory.
UCF Athletics caught up with Coach Rooney after the game, and quoted him as not being disappointed with the effort, but saying that “It was a great game tonight. The University of Florida played better than us. In order for us to be a great team, we have to play fundamentally sound and Florida played a little bit better than us, making a few more plays, and they got a few more clutch hits.”
The Knights will get a chance at redemption April 2nd in Gainesville, and will play next in the Wawa Weekend Classic at Jay Bergman field this weekend. UCF begins the tournament at 7:00 p.m. Friday night against the University of Connecticut (1-2), continuing their initial 8 game homestand.
