The UCF Knights delivered a comeback victory against the FAU Owls Tuesday night at John Euliano Park.
The Knights were coming into the game off the heels of a 4-game series with UNF in which they went 3-1 with the Ospreys and improved to 6-9 for the season.
Hopes of building on the momentum they had were quickly stalled as the Knights found themselves in a quick hole.
Owls sophomore B.J. Murray homered deep over far left-field with a man on base to bring FAU to an early 2-0 lead after only two at-bats to start things off for the night.
After a scoreless second inning, junior Josh Crouch homered deep over left field with a man on base to score a 2-run home run quickly bringing the Knights back in the game by the end of the third inning, now trailing just 3-2.
After the Owls went scoreless at the top of the fourth inning, the Knights found themselves with bases loaded after hit a single hit to right field from freshman John Montes setting the stage for Freshman Alex Freeland to drive in some runs.
UCF freshman Pablo Ruiz scored a run to tie the game up after Freeland was walked.
Freshman Dante Visconti started the game for the knights at the mound but after four innings played, and six hits and three runs, he was taken out of the game for freshman Ben Vespi at the top of the fifth inning.
The Knights were having a tough time getting their offense going with three more scoreless innings until the bottom of the eighth inning.
The Knights found themselves with bases loaded yet again awaiting the pitch that would determine the game.
UCF sophomore Ben McCabe drilled a home run deep over left field that enacted a loud roar from the fans that jumped to their feet in celebration throughout the stands in John Euliano Park along with players from the Knights’ dugout storming the field to celebrate rocketing to an 8-3 lead and ultimately winning the game against the Owls.
Despite the grand slam home run, the Knights only managed six hits on the night being out hit by the Owls 9-6.
Crouch had a standout performance for the Knights going 3-4 at-bat with three RBI and one home run to cap off the night.
With the win, the Knights will advance to 7-9 overall on the season and mark their second win of the season against the Owls.
