Bad inning costs Knights game against FSU

Eight of the nine times the Florida State Seminoles stepped to the plate Tuesday night the No. 18 UCF Knights shut the No. 8 team in the nation down.

Florida State (10-1) would plate seven in the top of the sixth, though, enough to defeat the Knights (10-3), 7-6, in the first of a two-game series at Jay Bergman Field.

"It was a great college baseball game," UCF head coach Terry Rooney said. "Obviously, from our end…you can't do that against great teams. … Florida State took advantage of the opportunities."

The second largest crowd ever to see a game at the Berg (2,934 announced attendance) watched UCF and the Seminole go back and forth in what was, outside of three half innings, a duel of the respective pitching staffs.

UCF struck first in the bottom of the third, scoring four runs. The Knights would respond to the Seminoles big inning, also, scoring two runs in the bottom of the seventh.

FSU buckled down, though, and Robert Benincasa came in and picked up the save (3) for the Seminoles.

Chris Taladay led the way for UCF offensively, going three-for-four with two RBIs.

Brian Adkins got the start for UCF and went 5 1/3 innings, giving up three runs on five hits while striking out four.

"The pitches felt good," Adkins said. "They were kind of playing into my hands with being aggressive, swinging at some pitches out of the zone. It was unfortunate we couldn't hold on, but that's just how it goes sometimes."

Reliever Roman Madrid got the loss for UCF, allowing four runs in 1 2/3 innings of work.

The Knights also committed two costly errors in that costly sixth innings. Those errors played heavily into the four unearned runs that came across for FSU.

"I'm proud of our effort, our guys battled hard," Rooney said. "But at the end of the day you have to play the game better."

The Knights will get a chance to split the series Wednesday night when they take on FSU again. Rooney said he has not decided on a starter. UCF is hopeful for another lively crowd for Wednesday's game.

"I noticed the place was jumping," Adkins said. "We're hoping for the same thing tomorrow with a little different outcome at the end…. We'll have to play our game, we had eight zero's and one ugly inning."