Ryan Breen, Austin Johnston, Chris Taladay and Erik Hempe provided the offense as they stepped up in their final home game in a UCF Knights uniform to beat the Tulane Green Wave 7-3 on Senior Day at Jay Bergman Field on Sunday, May 12.
“We have lost a lot of close games,” said UCF head coach Terry Rooney. “We’ve been on the wrong end to our fault and we played terrible on Friday and Saturday we didn’t play well and Tallahassee we played great, but we were short.”
The Knights got on the board first in the bottom of the second inning, when Austin Johnston hit a sac fly to right field, which led to James Vasquez tagging from third to score and give UCF an early 1-0 lead over Tulane.
UCF increased their lead in the bottom of the third, when Chris Taladay singled with the bases loaded to drive in JoMarcos Woods and Breen to make the score 3-0 UCF and advance Hempe to third on the hit.
Tulane cut the 3-0 deficit in the top of the fourth, when Sean Potkay hit a two-run homer to left field, which scored Andrew Garner to make the score 3-2 UCF.
UCF added to their advantage in the bottom of the fifth, when Erik Hempe homered to left field to make the score 4-2 UCF.
Tulane cut into the lead in the top of the sixth, when Tucker Oakley doubled to left center field and drove in Bowen Woodson to make the score 4-3 UCF.
Brian Adkins said, “ My game plan was that I saw they were crushing fastballs outside, so I pitched more inside and low to not give them any pitches.”UCF in the bottom of the sixth inning increased its margin over Tulane, when Chris Taladay doubled to right center with the bases loaded, which made Woods advanced to third and score Breen and Jeramy Matos to make it 6-3 Knights over the Green Wave.
The Knights increased their advantage over the Green Wave in the bottom of the seventh, when Johnston singled through the right side and drove in James Vasquez to make UCF’s lead 7-3 and give the Knights some breathing room.
UCF’s bullpen compared to the other two games versus Tulane, performed up to their talent as Zac Favre and Spencer Davis pitched scoreless innings to give UCF the 7-3 victory and Brian Adkins the win after Adkins pitched six innings, eight hits, three runs, three earned runs and five strikeouts.
With the win the Knights record improves to 28-24 for the season as UCF now travels to Boca Raton, FL to play one game against FAU before traveling to North Carolina to finish the season with a three-game series against ECU.
