Third day flummoxes UCF baseball again

UCF’s weekend series have followed a formula similar to this weekend so far this season.

Cre Finfrock and Robby Howell put in stellar pitching performances and give UCF a big chance for a pair of victories.

That third day?

That remains the trouble for UCF. A day coach Terry Rooney has tried to figure out how to get his team to perform on more consistently this season. Winning the weekend means finishing out these days when the pitching staff gets stretched thinner.

The Knights got another solid performance from Howell in a 6-4 win over the Brown Bears on Saturday night. The Knights offense backed him up and came through when the Knights fell behind with three runs in the eighth inning off a Ryan Crile three-run home run.

Howell finished off the eighth inning to earn his fourth win of the season and the Knights got save from Harrison Hukari and Campbell Scholl working the ninth inning.

That is what characterizes the first two days of every weekend.

Sunday, the Knights had to go through five pitchers with starting pitcher Andrew Deramo making it only 1 1/3 innings before heading to the bench, giving up two runs. Scholl pitched the next inning and gave up four.

Those are the kind of scenarios UCF has had to try to avoid. The Knights were down 7-1 through three innings and already pretty deep into their bullpen. Brown added four more in the fifth inning on the team’s way to a 15-5 win. Austin Griffin and Logan Heiser hit solo home runs for the Knights to provide some offense.

The Knights gave up 16 hits.

This is how Sunday games have gone. The Knights are 2-3 in Sunday games and have given up 43 runs in those five games. That is more than eight runs per game. The Knights have been able to score runs, but have also had to chase the lead. They have to use a lot of pitchers in these games too.

UCF’s goals of finishing the weekend strong have not come to pass so far this season.

And here was a chance for a sweep lost yet again ahead of a midweek series at Florida State.