BY: RYAN BASS
The Siena Saints marched into Sunday’s series finale against UCF looking to salvage the final game of the three-game set with a win.
The Knights had other plans.
An early 4-0 lead and a four-RBI day for Ronnie Richardson led the Knights to a 10-8 victory over Siena on Sunday, improving their record to 6-1 on the season and to 31-3 all time against the Saints.
A Shane Brown RBI single and two big hits from Chris Taladay and Richardson put the Knights ahead 4-0 after two innings. Siena marched back, scoring four in the top half of the fourth.
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Both teams exchanged runs the rest of the way, but the Knights plated six runs in innings five through seven to take the lead. Beau Taylor highlighted the scoring in the ladder innings with a 2-run homer in the sixth, scoring Brown.
Seven of the nine players in the lineup registered at least one hit in the game, with Taylor leading the way with three.
On Saturday, Taylor was the hero in extra innings for the Knights.
The sophomore lined a single into right field, scoring Darnell Sweeney from second base and giving UCF a 6-5 come-from-behind victory in the 12th inning. It was the first walk-off win for the Knights since Eric Kallstrom singled to beat UAB back on May 9, 2008.
“Great players always rise to the occasion and obviously that was a tremendous hit by Beau, but that game tonight was a total team effort,” Rooney said. “I told those guys at the end there that I was running out of lines on my dugout board as far as substitutions go, and that’s a good thing. That means that in the course of the whole game, everybody contributed.”
Trailing 5-4 entering the final frame, the Knights (5-1) got clutch hits from Austin Johnston and Chris Taladay to send the game into extras. Johnston doubled to lead off the inning and Taladay followed with a bloop-RBI double to shallow left, scoring Johnston and tying the game at 5.
The Knights got on the board early in the game behind a Richardson sacrifice fly and a Brown RBI single to right in the bottom of the third. The Saints tied the score up in the top of the fourth, but a towering two-run blast from Jonathan Griffin to dead center put the Knights up 4-2 after four innings.
“His power, you really can’t contain that kind of power for that long,” said Rooney of Griffin’s first HR as a Knight. “It’s just a matter of time. I’ve seen that guy, recruiting him, hit a lot of homeruns and hit them pretty far, and that was certainly indicative of what he did [Saturday].”
The Saints scored three unanswered runs through the next two innings to take a 5-4 lead heading into the bottom of the ninth, but just like in last Sunday’s game against Savannah State, the Knights found a way to pull it out in the end.
“This is better than any other team I’ve been a part of, the way we come back in a game,” Taylor said. “Everybody just keeps fighting and it’s the confidence that everybody has right now.”
On Friday, despite trailing early, the Knights powered to a commanding 8-3 win in the first game of the three-game set.
The Knights were most productive in the fifth inning, with leftfielder Chris Duffy picking up an RBI triple that resulted in a run, and designated hitter Taladay driving in two.
Taladay went 2-for-4 with three RBIs and a run scored.
“I feel very comfortable up at bat,” Taladay said. “I’m just seeing the ball good, doing what I can do.”
That big inning put the Knights up 7-3.
Starting pitcher Owen Dew kept the Saints to seven hits and left the game with a 2.70 ERA. Dew was replaced by reliever Brennan Dobbins in the sixth inning.
Coach Terry Rooney was proud of his team’s ability to not just blow teams out over the weekend, but also to come from behind and win.
“This team is showing some of those tremendous characteristics,” he said. “They showed it tonight, they showed it last Sunday and they showed it in Gainesville [Wednesday].
Obviously, from the mentality standpoint, I think we are on our way.”
