Orlando, FL – Under the direction of 54th year skipper Tony Rossi, Siena Baseball opened the 2023 season in familiar territory Friday evening. The Saints fell to the University of Central Florida by a score of 22-5 at John Euliano Park to open a three-game weekend series in Orlando, Florida.
Following a scoreless two innings behind graduate student pitcher Arlo Marynczak, the Saints struck first off the bat of freshman Gavin Thorburn, who used his first collegiate at-bat in the top of the third to knock a solo home run to left field.
The Knights responded in the home half of the inning with a crooked number and never looked back, with a pair of homers in the third and two more in the fifth to jet out to a 7-1 lead.
Siena again found the scoring column in the top of the sixth, with Vincent DiNicola scoring Aidan Stewart on an RBI single to left and Matt Livingston plating a pair of runs on an RBI single to center.
UCF took control thereafter with eight runs in the sixth, six in the seventh, and one more in the eighth to cruise to victory. The home team held a 22-6 hits advantage and capitalized on three Siena errors.
Siena featured six different players with a hit offensively with Livingston's multi-RBI performance leading the way, while UCF's Ben McCabe went a perfect 5-5 with five RBI's and four runs scored, which included three solo home runs.
Marynczak (0-1) took the loss with six strikeouts and seven runs given up on seven hits in four and one-third innings, while Eddie Girtler (1.0 IP) and Billy Rice (0.2 IP) each saw their first action in a Siena uniform, and Noah Rodriguez struck out five in the game's final two innings. UCF's Ruddy Gomez (1-0) struck out seven in five and two-thirds innings on the mound to earn the win.
Siena will look to rebound in game two of the weekend series on Saturday, February 18 at 4 PM.
