The UCF Knights defeated the Siena Saints 16-0 on Friday night at John Euliano Park. The Knights have now won five season openers in a row, including four against the Saints.
“Going out there, attacking the strike zone, playing clean defense, and then doing the stuff that we’d worked on, and actually putting out there on display, against another opponent, because what we wanted to do was what we did,” UCF coach Rich Wallace said.
The Knights hit two home runs, including a grand slam from former Stetson Hatter and Lake Brantley High School Patriot Landon Moran. UCF center fielder DeAmez Ross, who totaled three hits in the opener, also hit a homer.
“The approach was just to get the run in,” Moran said. “I wanted to see the first pitch available and just hit it as hard as possible, and luckily, I did that.”
After being shut out in the first inning, the Knights would go on to score a run in the next five innings, including four multi-run innings and two five-run innings.
“There were some of those at-bats in team situations early in the first three innings,” Wallace said. “I thought we could have been a little bit more productive, but they didn’t panic. They just stuck with it. I think our at-bats got better.”
Nine of UCF’s 16 runs came off mistakes from Siena, including four errors, a wild pitch that scored two runs, and two balks. All five of the Knights’ runs in the fifth were scored on errors.
“This game is going to give you opportunities and if you don’t capitalize when you get opportunities handed to you, it’s going to make it tough to score,” Wallace said “I mean, it’s nice to see them kind of push through with a little help on the other side.”
Maryville transfer Braden Smith got the “Opening Knight” start for UCF, shutting out Sienna while collecting five strikeouts. Despite giving up five hits and having two runners in scoring position, Smith held the Saints to 0/9 with runners on and 0/2 with runners in scoring position.
“It was nice to see Braden Smith go out there and do kind of what he’s done in practice,” Wallace said. “Attack the zone, keep the defenders in play and in rhythm. Guy goes out there and walks one guy in six innings on opening night. The two-seamer and the cutter, just keeping the infielders involved was nice to see.”
UCF drew 14 walks against Siena, including seven full-count walks and five four-pitch walks. Meanwhile, the Saints only had one walk, coming early in the second inning.
“I think some of those walks early in the game, they earned some of those,” Wallace said. “Some of the ones probably at the end of the game were not. Sloppy walks that they’re probably not happy with, but we’ll take them.”
Next up
The Knights will continue their season series opener against Sienna on Saturday. Sacred Heart transfer Joey Trombley will be on the mound as UCF will look to win their first series of the season and their 33rd straight game against the Saints.
“Game two tomorrow, you’re gonna see Joey Trombley, my roommate,” Smith said. “Really good pitcher and was deserving of any role in this team. He’s gonna go out there and get them again. I know he knows a lot of these guys, kind of personally, being from New York, and close to Siena, so I think he wants to go out there and dominate. That’s what he’s done all fall, and in a couple weeks we went back in the spring, so I wouldn’t expect anything less.”
First pitch against the Saints is set for 1 p.m. on Feb. 14.