ORLANDO, Fla. ? Clutch two-out home runs sparked the No. 25 UCF baseball team to a pair of victories over Monmouth Saturday at Jay Bergman Field. Shane Brown drilled a three-run shot in the completion of Friday's game while Robert Lara crushed a grand slam in the eighth inning of game two to help the Knights (10-1) claim 10-2 and 8-4 wins over the Hawks (1-4).
In the two games, senior Shawn Teters collected six hits to pace the Hawks, including a 4-for-4 outing in the second game.
Game One Recap:
Game one picked up with UCF leading 3-2 and having runners at first and second and two outs. Facing Monmouth's Tim Dexter, Brown quickly opened the afternoon by crushing his three-run homer to center to bring the Knights' lead to 6-2.
They came back in the sixth and loaded the bases with nobody away. A sacrifice fly to left provided UCF with the seventh run as Siebenaler drove in Chris Duffy, and Bailey followed by ripping a single through the left side to plate Eric Kallstrom. To conclude the inning's scoring, Arnold allowed Lara and Tyson Auer to come across thanks to a two-run single to center.
Now with a 10-2 cushion, Cody Allen relieved Good and went 3.0 scoreless innings with three strikeouts. Paul Cinder closed out the win with his first appearance of the year for the Knights, and struck out one in a scoreless ninth.
Teters and Brett Holland each registered two hits for the Hawks.
Game Two Recap:
Lara's grand slam marked his first homer as a Knight after transferring from LSU, and it came with two outs in the eighth with the score knotted at 4-4.
Austin Hudson pitched 4.0 hitless innings in relief to get the win and move his record to 2-0.
For the second-straight game, Monmouth took an early lead in the top of the first by earning a sacrifice fly off the bat of Chris Collazo against Knight starting pitcher Kyle Sweat. However, UCF returned the favor by scoring two on the bottom half, picking up RBI base hits from Arnold and Brown off Brad Brach.
John Dennis helped the Hawks draw even with the Knights in the fourth on a one-out RBI single, and Kyle Higgins and Teters then each lined two-out RBI base hits to right-center for a 4-2 MU advantage. Teters went on to post a game-high four hits for the Hawks. UCF stayed right with Monmouth in the bottom half as Ryan Richardson brought home Arnold with a sacrifice fly to right.
The Knights got into a jam when the Hawks placed runners at second and third with one down in the fifth, but escaped thanks to Hudson coming on and eventually inducing Dennis to ground into a double play to end the threat.
Brach kept UCF at bay for the middle innings and routinely got ahead of hitters. He finished his outing with 7.0 innings of work, throwing 114 pitches and 82 strikes. When Matt Frazier took the mound in the eighth, though, Auer greeted him with a triple to right center on a 1-2 count. Two batters later and Auer scored the tying run on a double by Brown that barely stayed fair down the right-field line.
Now with a runner on second and one out, Justin Esposito stepped onto the hill and quickly loaded them up with an intentional walk to Richardson and a free pass to pinch-hitter Kyle Mills. After a fielder's choice where Brown was forced out at home, Lara strode to the plate and cranked a 1-0 pitch well over the center-field fence to put the game on ice.
Both teams now prepare for the series finale Sunday at 1 p.m. at Jay Bergman Field.
