Knights surge, earn sweep of No. 1 Gators
The No. 23 UCF baseball team earned two statement wins this week, sweeping the No. 1 Florida Gators.
The Knights (10-3) knocked off the Gators (12-3) 4-2 in Gainesville late Wednesday night.
UCF got off to a hot start Wednesday night.
Ray Alejo led off with a double and Rylan Thomas gave UCF a 2-0 lead with his fourth home run of the season.
UCF starter Joe Sheridan (2-0), a Hagerty High alum, earned the victory despite walking four batters in the bottom of the fifth and allowing the Gators to score a run.
The Knights immediately got the run back in the sixth inning on Matthew Mika’s solo home run to left field. UCF made it 4-1 in the seventh with a RBI single from pinch-hitter Chandler Robertson.
UF’s Blake Reese delivered an RBI single in the eighth to cut the deficit to two runs, but the Gators left the bases loaded and UCF closer Bryce Tucker earned the save.
“Back-to-back wins against the No. 1 team, I think we proved a lot to ourselves and a lot to the country about what this team is going to be about after the rough start that we had. And I think we’re going to start to turn it around here,” Sheridan said, alluding to earlyseason losses the Knights suffered.
Florida, meanwhile, was off to a blistering pace before running into UCF and coach Kevin O’Sullivan said he expected the Gators to learn a lot from the series.
“To be honest with you, no one likes to lose but we’ve learned a lot about our team the last two days,” O’Sullivan said. “We ran a bunch of freshmen out there on the mound, started Brady [Smith] behind the plate today. It just gives us a lot more to learn about our team moving forward and that’s really what you’re trying to do at this point — figure out who can do what, who can handle certain situations. I thought Jonah [Girand] had a really good pinch-hit atbat [in the eighth].
“Quite honestly, things have been a little bit easy for us up to this point. No one likes to lose, like I said, but to be honest with you this is probably what this team needs. It needs a little motivation. Hopefully this will motivate us to play a little better this weekend.”
UCF’s win in Gainesville followed a strong performance at home in Orando.
The Knights shook off some miscues and rolled to a 9-7 home win over Florida Tuesday night.
It was the Knights’ first win over the top-ranked team in the nation in school history.