ORLANDO, Fla. – Eight dominant shutout innings from Zach Rodgers and back-to-back home runs in the first inning from James Vasquez and Erik Barber gave UCF (6-10, 27-19) enough momentum to snap a five game losing streak Friday night in a 3-0 win over USF (9-7, 28-17-1).
The Knights have come upon hard times, dropping a few close games on the road and failing to gain any real traction within the division. It is this kind of win that can shake a team loose.
“That was a team win, in all aspects. Rodge obviously threw great, great defense from start to finish, clutch hits… guys could take a deep breath and we had very, very good at bats against an outstanding USF pitcher,” Coach Rooney said.
Vasquez provided early run support by crushing a 3-2 over the right field fence for the game’s first run. Two pitches later Erik Barber sent one of his own into the crowd, giving the Knights an early 2-0 lead.
Kam Gellinger notched a single in the second inning to set up the final run scored in the game, finally crossing the plate via a Dylan Moore sacrifice fly. From then on the production fell silent from both teams. No hitter from UCF had multiple hits and the Bulls had just five all game.
Rodgers was once again the stabilizing force he needed to be to get this team on track. Over his eight scoreless frames the righty struck out ten and only walked three. It was the pitch count of 119 that did him in rather than the efforts from USF hitters.
Rooney made a mound visit in the eighth to buy time only. The intention was to let Rodgers finish the inning but Hukari was always going to close the game out
“I went out there and I told Rodge, I said, you’re not coming out of the game, and he wasn’t going to and that’s what I told him. He knew that and he wanted to finish it,” said Rooney.
Hukari almost made the game much closer when he served up a pitch that had every appearance of a two-run home run before Erik Barber made a catch at the wall to keep it at nil.
Cre Finfrock will get the start in game two of the series, slated for a 4:00 p.m. first pitch on Saturday.
