ORLANDO — The UCF baseball team got back in the win column by shutting out Stetson, 2-0, on Tuesday night at John Euliano Park to earn its second win over the Hatters on the season.
The game was paused due to lightning prior to the start of the sixth inning and eventually called a five-inning complete game after an hour and forty-minute delay. With the win, the Black and Gold broke a five-game losing skid and snapped Stetson’s seven game winning streak. UCF moved to 18-10, while the Hatters dropped to 17-13.
The star of the show for the hosts was starting pitcher Matt Sauser. In his first appearance since March 8 against Monmouth, the right-hander would pitch the full five innings, in which he gave up only a single hit while striking out two batters. Sauser retired the first 14 batters he faced and made quick work of every batter he faced. Not only did he not walk a batter, but he also didn’t throw a three-ball count to any batter on the evening. Stetson only had a total of two batters reach base off him in the game.
“He was absolutely outstanding,” head coach Rich Wallace said. “Obviously you see the no runs and the one hit. He didn’t get to a three-ball count all night. His fastball was in the zone the whole time. Also had some really good sliders and was competitive. He was exactly what we needed coming off the weekend. I couldn’t be more proud of the way he performed.”
Sauser’s performance was the key for the Black and Gold’s win was his ability to quickly sit down batters that allowed the Knights to get through five innings — the minimum number of innings needed to be an official game — before the lightning came.
“It felt good,” Sauser said. “The biggest thing DT (Pitching Coach Drew Thomas) and Wally (Coach Wallace) wanted was just attack first, pitch strikes and let the defense work.”
The two runs for UCF came from a pair of RBI doubles, one by Lex Boedicker in the bottom of the first and the other from Edian Espinal in the bottom of the fifth.
With two out and no one on in the first, Espinal was hit by a pitch and Andrew Williamson followed with a single ahead of Boedicker’s RBI double.
In the fifth, again with two outs and no one on, Antonio Jimenez doubled ahead of Espinal’s run-scoring two-bagger.
The Knights were limited to five hits on the night, but four of the safeties went for doubles as Chade Krewson also had two-base hit.
Sauser (2-0) was hurling a perfect game with two outs in the fifth inning when Stetson’s Jordan Taylor reached on a fielding error and Jayden Hylton followed with a single to right on a 1-2 pitch.
Some offensive streaks were also extended in this game. Espinal and Andrew Williamson both extended their on-base streaks to 26 games.
Ethan Phillips was tagged with the loss to drop to 0-2 on he season.
Up Next:
The Knights will return to John Euliano Park to start a 3-game Big 12 Conference series on Friday with No. 23 Kansas. The set wraps up with a 6 p.m. game today (Saturday) and a 1 p.m. first pitch on Sunday. After that, the Black and Gold will play a midweek game in Jacksonville against North Florida at Harmon Stadium on Dusty Rhodes Field on Tuesday at 6 p.m. before traveling to Manhattan, Kansas, to face No. 22 Kansas State next weekend. The games will be streamed on ESPN+, while live audio will be available by visiting UCFKnights.com or FM 96.9 The Game on the radio and live stats can also be followed at ucf.statbroadcast.com.
