The UCF Knights came up just short of its quest of sweeping the ninth-ranked Louisville Cardinals on Friday night, losing 3-2.

Heading into the bottom of the ninth inning trailing by one run, the Knights were able to load the bases with two outs, but came up just short when Cardinals pitcher Nick Burdi struck out Derrick Salberg to end the game.

“Although they are disappointed today, they should be extremely proud of the way they played this weekend,” said Knights head coach Terry Rooney on the loss. “Every weekend you go into it and the bottom line is you try to win the series. They won the series against an outstanding Louisville team that was ranked in the top 10 in the country and they did a great job.”

The two teams played a double-header on Thursday with the Knights winning both games, which sealed the series win. With the series win, the Knights’ lead in the American Athletic Conference is 2.5 games over the Cardinals.

“Obviously this weekend was a good weekend,” said Rooney. “These guys have been playing well for a long time. It was a big series, but we have plenty of baseball left in this conference.”

The Cardinals jumped out to a two-run lead early in the first inning, aided by an error by Knights shortstop Tommy Williams.

The Knights answered with a run in the bottom-half of the first inning, and then in the sixth inning on a pinch-hit sacrifice fly by Sam Tolleson.

Rooney was impressed with the pitching throughout the three-game series, specifically with the bullpen.

“You look at it yesterday and we gave up one run in 10 innings and today they did a terrific job,” said Rooney. “I’m really proud of the effort from the bullpen this weekend.”

The Knights have the next five days off before facing Memphis at Jay Bergman Field on Friday night.