Photo courtesy UCFAthletics.com
Beau Taylor fell one hit short of history.
Taylor, who entered Saturday night’s baseball game against Southeastern Louisiana tied with Mike Myers for a UCF record 26-game hit streak, went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts, ending the streak in a 7-2 loss for the Knights, the first loss of the 2011 campaign for UCF.
The loss was also the first one out of conference for UCF (5-1) since Mar. 16, 2010, snapping a 19-game winning streak against foes outside of Conference USA.
The Knights got another stellar outing from the starting rotation. Ray Hansen pitched 4 2/3 innings, allowing just one run and striking out five. He allowed seven hits, but escaped out of jams in the first and third innings.
SE Louisiana (5-1) struck first in the opening inning as Justin Boudreaux laced a 2-2 pitch through the left side of the infield with men on second and third, plating a run and giving the Lions a 1-0 lead.
The Knights didn’t stay down for long. Derek Luciano connected on the first pitch of the inning in the bottom of the third for a double to right, bringing Travis Shreve up to the plate. The second baseman placed down a sac bunt, moving Luciano over to third. Ronnie Richardson then grounded out to second for a fielders choice, brining home Luciano and tying the score at 1-1.
Then, the bullpen took over for UCF.
Bryan Brown relieved Hansen in the fifth inning, but struggled in the sixth. The Lions plated two runs before Brown was pulled in favor of Johnny Sedlock, who also gave up a run as SE Louisiana took a 4-1 lead.
UCF struck back in the seventh on a Chris Taladay RBI single up the middle, scoring DJ Hicks and cutting the Lions’ lead in half at 4-2. It was the first game of the season for Taladay, the reigning C-USA Freshman of the Year.
The Lions tacked on three more runs in the eighth and nine innings, including a two-run bomb from Boudreaux, and the combination of pitchers Joseph Koon and Stefan Lopez shut down the nights, handing them their first defeat of the season.
