UCF came away with their third consecutive win on Tuesday, beating the Jacksonville University Dolphins 5-3 in another tortuous episode of extra-inning baseball.
The late inning drama was ended by a James Vasquez double that came with two outs and brought home two runners. Vasquez had been locked on the entire game leading up to the high pressure situation, going 3-5 with 2 RBIs and leaving exactly zero runners stranded on the basepaths.
Dylan Moore started the rally by reaching first on a passed ball after swinging at the third strike, and stole second to move into scoring position after a failed bunt attempt. Derrick Salberg followed up with a walk to threaten Jacksonville’s 3-3 hold on the game.
On a night where his teammates struck out an eye-popping 18 times, the first baseman stood alone as the only UCF starter to not go down on strikes at least once.
“It sounds simple, but I just want to put good swings on the ball. We all put in a lot of hard work in the cages and want to hit the ball hard somewhere,” said Vasquez according to UCFKnights.com.
Vinnie Rosace got his first start of the season after appearing in relief for the Knights, handling the first two innings with ease before Coach Rooney took him off the bump. The freshman gave up 4 total bases and 1 earned run over 2.0 innings of work.
Zach Rodgers earned the ‘W’ with the team’s longest outing, a healthy 3.1 innings. Of the 14 batters he saw, only 3 managed to record a hit against him and none of them were able to draw a walk. Rodgers struck out 3 in the shut-down performance.
It was the Knights’ (6-2) third win since losing in 13 innings to Ohio State in the opening game of their home tournament. They will travel on to Ole Miss this weekend to take on the 7-1 Ole Miss Rebels.
There will be a familiar name in the boxscore this weekend when Colby Bortles, younger brother of former UCF star Blake Bortles, makes his first appearance. The freshman is hitting .385 with two extra base hits in 13 at-bats.
