The UCF Knights battled against the Wichita State Shockers as the two teams split the first two games of their four-game weekend series during Friday’s doubleheader at John Euliano Park.
The Knights quickly found themselves trailing Wichita State in game one after Shockers sophomore second baseman Jack Sigrist tallied up two early scores.
Sigrist reached home plate off an RBI from Shockers senior outfielder Corrigan Bartlett at the top of the first inning. Sigrist, in addition, recorded a solo home-run at the top of the third inning, which left the Knights in an early 2-0 deficit.
UCF responded in the bottom of the fourth with an RBI single from Knights freshman left fielder Pablo Ruiz that allowed freshman shortstop Alex Freeland to reach home, reducing the Knights’ deficit to just one run.
The following inning, Wichita State increased its lead to two runs after Shockers catcher Ross Cadena recorded an RBI single.
The Knights, again, had a rebuttal, as sophomore first baseman Ben McCabe recorded an RBI triple, which allowed three Knights to reach home plate, giving UCF a 4-3 lead – their first lead of the day.
The Knights’ momentum carried on over into the sixth inning, as an RBI from senior Jordan Rathbone – the Knights’ leading hitter – allowed Ruiz to advance to home plate in the bottom of the sixth inning, extending their lead to 5-3.
A seventh-inning Ruiz RBI single was the icing on the cake that secured the Knights’ 6-3 game one victory.
Much like game one, the Knights endured a rocky start to the latter game of Friday’s doubleheader.
A three-run home-run from Wichita State junior designated hitter Hunter Gibson left the Knights in an early three-run deficit. Immediately after, Shockers freshman first baseman Chuck Ingram recorded an RBI single, extending the Wichita State lead to 4-0.
The Knights’ struggles continued in the second inning, as the Shockers added two more runs onto their lead after RBIs from Corrigan Bartlett and Paxton Wallace extended the Wichita State lead to 6-0.
Wichita State tacked on another run to their lead in the top of the seventh inning with a run by Cadena off a sacrifice groundout from Gibson.
The Knights got on the board in the bottom of the seventh inning when redshirt sophomore infielder Connor Allen hit a solo home-run to left field, slightly reducing the deficit to six runs.
Wichita State poured it on in the eighth inning, scoring four runs to extend the lead to 10 runs.
The Knights eventually lost the game 11-1, allowing the Shockers to tie up the series at one game apiece.
After Friday’s split, the Knights moved to 23-23 on the season and 13-9 in conference play, while the Shockers are 23-18 overall and 11-10 in the American Athletic Conference.
UCF will look to retake control of the series, as game three is set to begin at 4 p.m. on Saturday. Game four’s finale will take place on Sunday at noon — both will take place at John Euliano Park and will be broadcast on ESPN+.
