The UCF Baseball team advanced to Fridayโs elimination game against the loser of the Houston and Memphis game tomorrow after defeating the Wichita State Shockers 12-4 Thursday afternoon.
After being tied 1-1 after the first inning, the Knights came alive with five runs at the end of the second inning when Gephyry Pena got things going for UCF with a single to center field scoring INF Michael Brooks. Noah Orlando then singled to Left Center to score Pena and Lex Boedicker for another two runs. Alex Freeland scored another run off a wild pitch from the Shockers with Tom Josten wrapping up the inning with a single to right field to score Orlando to end the inning with a 6-1 lead.
Even with Wichita State coming back in the third inning with two unanswered runs to cut UCFโs lead to 6-3, the Knights never looked back as they scored six more runs as they never trailed to eliminate the Shockers to advance to Fridayโs Elimination round in the AAC tournament.
UCF Head Coach Greg Lovelady said he thought his team delivered on offense tonight after what he described as a terrible performance in Tuesdayโs 6-7 loss against the Memphis Tigers.
โI think, offensively, the guys knew that we needed more out of them,โ Lovelady said. โThey came ready to go.โ
The Knights will play the loser of game eight of tournament play between Houston and Memphis on Friday. UCF will take the mound approximately 47 minutes after the 1pm game Friday at Baycare Ballpark in Clearwater FL.
