The Knights’ offensive power and defensive ability were on display as UCF shutout the Jacksonville Dolphins 10-0 Sunday at John Euliano Park.
The Knights traveled to Jacksonville on Friday and fell 1-2 to the Dolphins. UCF faced the team again on Saturday and won 12-9 before returning home to close out the three-game series.
UCF outfielder Jordan Rathbone has been a standout in the series coming into Sunday’s game after getting a hit in Friday’s 1-2 loss to the Dolphins.
In the Knights’ Saturday 12-9 win, the redshirt senior collected five RBI and two runs of his own in five at-bats. The right fielder hit a home run at the top of the third, a triple RBI at the top of the fourth — was left on base — and scored after reaching first off an error in the eighth inning.
After going scoreless in the first inning on Sunday and leaving the bases loaded, UCF freshman second baseman John Montes started things in the second inning. to put UCF on the board.
Montes hit an RBI double to center field, bringing in redshirt sophomore Connor Allen to put the Knights up 1-0.
The Knights were able to capitalize in the bottom of the third as freshman Pablo Ruiz singled to center field.
Ruiz made it so second after the throw, bringing in sophomores Tom Josten and Ben McCabe to score on a couple of runs to extend the lead to 3-0.
After a single from Montes and a couple of wild pitches from Dolphins’ pitcher Adrian Garrastazu, the Knights finished the third inning driving in five runs to extend their lead to 6-0.
The Knights’ continued to dominate as UCF catcher McCabe helped extend the lead. McCabe hit 3-of-3 with two home runs, two runs and was walked twice.
His two home run-game moves him into a tie for first in the American Athletic Conference with 8 on the year.
UCF head coach Greg Lovelady said he was pleased with Sunday’s win but still thinks the team has yet to reach its peak.
“As good as we played most of this week, we still haven’t reached our peak yet,” Lovelady said. “We don’t want to, we want to peak at the end of the year. We’re definitely a lot better than we were opening weekend though.”
UCF senior pitcher A.J. Jones started the game for the Knights and threw five innings where he allowed only six hits. The right-handed pitcher collected six strikeouts and no runs in the team’s shutout performance.
Ruiz had the performance of the afternoon with a season-high four hits in his five at-bats, where he hit two triples and scored two runs. The center-fielder was also responsible for three RBI.
Ruiz RBI tripled to left-center in the bottom of the fourth, and he tripled again down the right-field line in the bottom of the eighth — the first two triple hit game by a Knight since 2004.
Ruiz said with the team starting to play a little more consistently, he is looking forward to taking on the Florida State Seminoles this Wednesday.
“I like that they just swept No. 6 ranked Miami because that just makes us hungrier,” Ruiz said. “We tend to play way better depending on the competition, so I’m excited for that and the guys.”
With the win, the Knights will finish the three-game series with Jacksonville 2-1 and improving to 9-10 overall for the season. The Dolphins fall to 5-12 overall with the loss.
The Knights will travel to Tallahassee to take on Florida State Wednesday at 6 p.m. before hitting the road again to play a three-game weekend series at Troy this weekend.
