Top 25 UCF Games of 2018-19: #12 - Baseball Wins Marathon on Senior Knight

May 19th was the final on-campus sporting event at UCF, and it would prove to be a memorable one as the UCF Knights Baseball team hosted Houston on Senior Knight.

The Knights and Cougars split the first two meetings. Ten Knights were honored prior to the game. The weekend series also marked the return of former Head Baseball Coach Terry Rooney for the first time at UCF.

The game looked to be all Knights early as they jumped out to a 7-1 lead through three innings.

Houston would come back, tying the game up at 8 in the 7th inning. UCF would score two in the bottom of the 7th to retake the lead at 10-8.

Houston responded with 2 of their own in the top of the 9th to tie it up at 10.

They would play on until the bottom of the 11th when Dallas Beaver led off with an infield single, before Gephry Pena took over on the bases as a pinch runner. The freshman worked his way to third after a walk by Robertson and a wild pitch.

With one out and the bases loaded, and in his last at-bat at John Euliano Park, senior Brandon Hernandez dropped a single to shallow left field to give the Knights an 11-10 win in 11 innings. The game took five hours and six minutes to play.

Hernandez’s walk-off hit sent the Knights into the American Athletic Conference Tournament as winners of 11 of their last 14 games.