ORLANDO – Danny Davis pitched seven innings of four hit baseball as the University of Central Florida Knights defeated the Siena Saints 8-2 on Sunday afternoon, Feb. 17 at the Jay Bergman field on the UCF campus.

With the victory on Sunday, UCF wins the weekend series over Siena with victories on Friday night and Sunday afternoon. The Knights extend their lead all-time in series play against the Saints 39-4. UCF scored six runs in the first inning and then Davis took over from there.

“Danny Davis was awesome,” said UCF head coach Terry Rooney. “Danny Davis was exactly what the doctor ordered so to speak, he was tremendous.” Davis threw 83 pitches over seven innings and allowed only one unearned run. “Davis dominated the strike zone all preseason, just pounding the zone lots of strikes with all his pitches.”

In the first inning, where Davis seemed to have nerves as it was his first start for the Knights, Davis walked a batter and hit another batter before he settled down over the next six innings and earned the win. This included a five pitch inning in the second frame.

The Knights defense played well as Davis had only one strikeout. “Obviously that just shows how well our defense played behind me,” said Davis. “The first pitch of the game is probably the biggest pitch of the game, so after that first batter I got a little more comfortable and things went well after that.”

UCF scored six runs in the first inning off of four hits as the Knights batted around in the order. “You’re just cruising after that, after putting up six runs it’s a lot easier to pitch pretty much have to go out there and throw strikes,” said Davis. Jeremy Matos got the first RBI of the game when he walked with the bases loaded to bring in JoMarcos Woods for the run. James Vasquez followed with a two RBI double and Austin Johnston singled which brought in another run. The Knights continued scoring and after one frame the score was 6-0.

The bottom of the line-up played a big part for the Knights. James Vasquez, Austin Johnston and Parker Webster accounted for four of UCF hits and six of the eight runs for the Knights.

Siena got six hits in the game and scored their only runs in the third inning and in the ninth inning. The Saints also used six relief pitchers in the game for a combined seven and two thirds innings. Starting pitcher Rick Morales only lasted a third of an inning.

UCF will face the University of Florida Gators twice this year including one at Jay Bergman field on Tuesday, Feb. 19.