Game One Box Score
Game Two Box Score
ORLANDO – Mike Amendola and Andy Drexel each homered and drove in four in a 12-11 win in Game One of the Hartford baseball team's doubleheader at Central Florida on Saturday, but the Hawks fell in the nightcap, 22-9. Bob Rogers earned the win in Game One, moving to 1-0 on the young season. Freshman Brian Rice pitched the ninth for his second save. Hartford was 2-0 for the first time since 2004 before dropping the second game.
The Hawks got on the board first in Game One, plating two in the third inning. Junior Simon Kudernatsch doubled into the gap in right center, and after he moved up to third on a groundout from senior Mike Amendola, Junior Andy Drexel launched his second home run in as many games.
The Knights (7-7) answered with a run in the fourth, and after Amendola drove in sophomore Cory Beahm in the top of the fifth, Central Florida took a 5-3 lead in the bottom of the inning thanks in large part to home runs from Beau Taylor and Chris Duffy.
As they did in their come-from-behind season-opening victory at Central Connecticut, the Hawks responded quickly and forcefully, scoring six runs in the top of the sixth.
Junior Mike Aldrich and redshirt freshman Jared Canney led off with back-to-back singles, and junior Rodger Wilmot plated Aldrich with a double roped down the left field line. Sophomore Victor Santana brought Canney home with a groundout, and after Beahm walked, sophomore Andrew Siano knocked a seeing-eye single through the left side to score Wilmot. After a pitching change, Amendola laced a double to left to drive in another run, and Drexel capped the rally with a single through the hole on the right side to plate two more.
Down 9-5, the Knights did not go quietly. They responded with their second straight four-run inning to tie the score in the bottom of the sixth, and took a 10-9 lead when Alex Friedrich homered to right center in the seventh.
That lead would not hold, though, as the suddenly potent Hawks offense dented the scoreboard for three more runs in the eighth. Kudernatsch led off with a single up the middle, and Amendola catapulted the Hawks back into the lead when he launched a round-tripper to left, his first of the season. Later in the frame, Wilmot would drive in Drexel to give Hartford a 12-10 advantage.
It was the fifth time in the first two games that Hartford has scored at least three runs in an inning.
Bob Rogers allowed just that lone run in the seventh inning to earn the victory after 2.1 solid innings of work. Freshman Brian Rice, who breezed through the ninth inning on Wednesday in the season opener, had to buckle down a little more to close out Saturday's first game. A wild pitch and the Hawks' fourth error of the game allowed a run to score, bringing the Knights within a run, but Rice coaxed two lazy fly balls to close out the game.
Despite spotting the Knights a ten-run cushion in a first inning in which starter Steve Sobocinski could not find the strike zone and was hurt by porous defense behind him, the Hawks battled back in Game Two. By the fifth inning, they had cut the Knights' lead to 12-9. Kudernatsch and Amendola each had two RBIs, while Siano, Bobby Gorski, Erik Figueredo and Adam Sobiewski added one apiece. The Hawks could climb no closer, though, and a three-run bomb from UCF's Chris Duffy - his third home run of the twin bill - killed the Hartford momentum and sent the Knights on their way to a 22-9 thrashing.
The two teams will be back in action on Sunday for the rubber match of the three-game set. First pitch is set for 1 p.m.
