UCF’s offensive struggles continued as a team-wide slump extended into Saturday with the team losing to Tulane (25-13, 6-4 American) for the second consecutive game, this time to a 4-1 score at Jay Bergman Field on Saturday
UCF (20-21, 5-6 American) held a 1-0 lead entering the top of the eighth inning on the back of a dazzling performance from pitcher Juan Pimentel, who pitched a gem for the third week in a row.
He has established himself as one of the top pitchers in a talented and productive rotation, but took his sixth loss of the season in hard-luck fashion, giving up just two earned runs in 7.1 innings pitched, while striking out four.
“I thought he [Pimentel] was really good,” head coach Terry Rooney said. “At the end of the day he went into the seventh and only gave up one run, what more could you want? Tulane did a great job and they’re a mistake-hitting team. They’ve hit those pitches hard every time. He kept everything in down in the zone and the game within the game was that he did a terrific job.”
Trouble came to UCF in the eighth with a leadoff single, followed by a perfectly executed hit-and-run base hit to right field to place runners at second and third.
A subsequent sac fly tied the game, but it could have been prevented.
After making a nice catch, Matt Diorio’s throw from left field was on the money. But catcher Anthony George could not control the throw and the run scored.
That lone mistake allowed Tulane to break through and take advantage of UCF’s otherwise silent bats.
Tulane used that opening to break through, scoring another run one batter later and two more in the ninth to seal the victory.
The Knights mustered only six hits and were seemingly going base-to-base the entire game, not having any kind of extra-base threat to thwart a vaunted Tulane pitching staff.
“When you’re playing teams in this league, every pitch matters,” Rooney said. “We’re going to get it going. I have all the confidence in the world in these guys.”
One of UCF’s only scoring opportunities came in the first as Eli Putnam, the team’s leading hitter, attempted to bunt with a runner at third base and two outs.
In RBI situations you expect Putnam, the clean-up hitter, to drive in a run and not just try to steal one. The Knights’ confidence has been sapped while facing tough starting pitching, and as a result, are resulting to small-ball tactics in any attempt scratch out runs.
It got them one Saturday, but nothing more. A continued sign of the Knights’ struggles.
“This is a good league and there’s a lot of good pitchers,” Rooney said. “Things have to get rolling a little bit. We’ve had good at-bats, but when we put ourselves in positions to score we have to come through.”
UCF also got into a bad habit of not working the pitcher, as Tulane starter Ross Massey had 88 pitches entering the ninth inning.
The good performances for UCF offensively came from Matthew Mika and Kam Gellinger, who each went 2-for-4. Mika has been UCF’s best hitter in conference play to the tune of a .313 average against American conference foes.
Other than that though, UCF has struggled mightily with the bats. They have a .310 on-base percentage in American conference play and a .254 total team batting average.
They now have one game left to avoid a sweep at home and keep pace with a packed middle of the American Conference.
“We’ve got to midnight rule this thing and come back tomorrow,” Rooney said.
UCF will have Cre Finfrock returning to the mound Sunday. The rotation has been switched around this weekend and the results have not gone the Knights’ way.
Finfrock will try to salvage the third game of the series and get UCF back to the .500 mark.
