ORLANDO, FL – Siena Baseball (0-1) officially commenced its 2022 campaign Friday evening, falling in the weekend opener of its season-opening series. The Saints dropped a 12-0 decision to the University of Central Florida (1-0) Friday evening at John Euliano Park in Orlando, Florida to open head coach Tony Rossi's record 53^rd season at the helm of the program.
 
Returning to non-conference play for the first time in two seasons, Siena played the Knights to two scoreless innings to open the game before the home team used an RBI single to get on the board in the bottom of the third. UCF would add a pair of insurance runs via an RBI single and a sacrifice fly in the home half of the fourth, and piled on two more runs in the sixth to pull out to a 5-0 advantage.
 
After leaving one runner on base in five previous innings, the Saints' offense came alive in the top of the eighth inning, loading up the bases with one out. The effort was halted by a strikeout and a groundout, with the Knights piling on seven more runs in the bottom of the frame to give the game its final result.
 
UCF held a 13-3 advantage in hits on the night, with sophomore Kobe Stenson, senior Alex Milone, and senior Devan Kruzinski each earning a base knock for the Saints.
 
UCF's David Litchfield (1-0) earned the win on the mound with eight strikeouts of six shutout innings, while Siena's Mike McCully (0-1) was tagged with the loss, surrendering three runs (two earned) off five hits while striking out five and issuing one walk over five innings. Senior Arlo Marynczak struck out two in two relief innings, while graduate student Carter Knapek and senior Brendan Quigley also saw time on the mound.
 
Siena will look to even up the weekend series on Saturday, February 19, with first pitch in Orlando set for 4:00 PM on ESPN+.