ORLANDO, Fla. – The Samford University baseball team dropped game one of its series at UCF, falling by a score of 18-3 in seven innings to the Knights Friday evening.
 
The game was delayed in the fifth inning for two hours due to rain.
 
"We just didn't play well in any area," Samford head coach Tony David said. "We had some good at-bats early, but not enough to show for it. Noah Berry got his first career pitching appearance and did a lot of good things. The rain came with the bases loaded and two outs, but the delay was too long for us to run him back out there. Then it got out of hand after the long delay."
 
With the loss, Samford fell to 4-1 on the young season. UCF improved to 3-0 with the win.
 
Samford was led at the plate by John Anderson, going 2-for-3 with a double, a triple and one RBI. Garrett Staton went 2-for-3 with two doubles. Brooks Rice (1-1) pitched 3.0 innings, giving up seven runs, just three earned, on five hits to take the loss on the mound for Samford. Noah Berry, Andrew Bennett, Jacob Newman and Dominic Ganley also saw time on the mound for Samford. The Samford defense committed three errors in the loss.
 
"It starts with pitching and defense, those are really the tone setters for us, even with all of our hitters," David said. "We did not play clean in the field and paid the price for that tonight. We have Michael Ross on the hill tomorrow and a chance to tie the series."
 
For UCF, Andrew Brait went 3-for-5 with a double, a home run and five RBI to lead the Knights at the plate. Lex Boedicker, Mikey Kluska and Andrew Estrella drove in three runs each. Ben Vespi (1-0) earned the win on the mound for UCF, tossing 5.0 innings, allowing one run on three hits.
 
Samford struck first with a run in the top of the first inning when Staton scored on a ground out by Lucas Steele for a 1-0 Bulldog lead. UCF, however, plated three runs in the first inning, one in the second, three in the third and five in the fifth to take a 12-1 lead.
 
Samford added two runs in the top of the sixth inning to cut the lead to 12-3. Anderson tripled to right field to drive in Steele for the first run of the inning. Anderson then scored on a sacrifice fly by Josh Rodriguez for Samford's third run of the game. UCF added six runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to make the score 18-3.
 
Samford and UCF will continue their series with a game Saturday evening. The contest is set to start at 5 p.m. (CT) from Orlando.
 
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