 "Photo: Josh Given")
The Knights lost a pitcher's duel Tuesday night to the nationally-ranked No. 29 Hurricanes 4-1, their last game before their Conference USA schedule starts up.
"I thought it was a great ball game," said Knights head coach Terry Rooney. "There were two outstanding pitchers battling it out on the hill the entire game and unfortunately they were a little bit better than us tonight."
Knights starting pitcher Brian Adkins came into the game ranked eighth in the nation in walks per nine innings. The Knights southpaw pitched six innings, struck out three, and gave up four runs on six hits. Adkins was pitching a steady game until the bottom of the sixth inning when Miami recorded four hits, including a grand-slam to cleanup hitter Harold Martinez, to go and stay ahead 4-1.
"I thought Adkins did a tremendous job tonight, he battled all night," Rooney said. "Obviously he left one pitch up in the zone but he did a fantastic job and gave us a chance to win."
The Knights had multiple chances to score runs against the Hurricanes. In the top of the first inning, Travis Shreve led the game off with a single. After a sac bunt from Ronnie Richardson, Shreve stole third (his 18th stolen base of the season), but the Knights couldn't capitalize.
Another scoring opportunity struck the Knights in the top of the seventh. Jonathan Griffin and D.J. Hicks led off the inning with base hits but the Hurricanes' starting pitcher Steven Ewing got Ryan Breen to hit into the inning-ending double play. Ewing pitched 7-1/3 innings and struck out 12 Knights.
Third-baseman Derek Luciano provided the only scoring for the Knights. In the top of the third inning, Luciano hit his second homerun of the season to give the team its lone run of the game.
This was a tough game for the Knights and marks the beginning of the most difficult road trip the team has faced all season.
"I think were in a stretch of games where the competition is outstanding," Rooney said. "We just had Miami and now we're going to Rice. I told the team that there is going to be a lot of close games from here on out and we just have to find a way to simply be better than the other team."
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