Colton Gordon is used to allowing one run in his starts, but this latest was his best considering the opponent and the lofty win streak he went a long way in snapping.
The UCF lefty twisted Ole Miss up for seven innings on Friday in Oxford, scattering six hits and a walk around six strikeouts, as the Knights broke the Rebels’ 20-game win streak with a 3-2 victory.
Gordon threw 68 of his 98 pitches for strikes and shutdown the Rebels in only 12 pitches during his final inning, right after UCF scored its first two runs and took the lead. He retired eight in a row to finish his night.
It’s Ole Miss’ first loss since dropping the 2020 season opener on February 14 to Louisville, as the Rebels fall four games short of the SEC record for consecutive wins.
“It’s always disappointing when you lose, no mater if first loss or not,” Mike Bianco said. “Losing sucks the life out of you. We all realize we weren’t going 56-0 but that does’t take the sting out, but the message is will you respond? Will you come back and play good baseball? I’ll be surprised if they don’t play well, starting tomorrow.”
UCF has won five straight against SEC teams dating back to 2019. The Knights swept a series at Auburn last year. Gordon gave up one run in six innings on the Plains, and he’s allowed exactly one run in five of his six career starts.
UCF was 1-3 entering Friday, losing 2 of 3 to Florida Atlantic and a midweek game to Stetson.
Closer David Litchfield gave up a solo home run to Hayden Dunhurst in the ninth inning but threw only seven pitches in a perfect eighth and coaxed Hayden Leatherwood into a fielder’s choice with the tying run at first to end the game.
The Rebels’ first run came in the fourth on three singles in a row with two outs. Ben Van Cleve, Dunhurst and Cael Baker gave Ole Miss a 1-0 lead at the time. It would last until the seventh inning.
Ole Miss didn’t put a runner in scoring position past Justin Bench’s double in the fifth inning. 13 of the 19 non-strikeout outs were groundouts.
“Just a tough night and credit Gordon and Litchfield,” Bianco said. “They were both really dominant tonight. We had a lot of trouble catching up to the fastball and that’s not usually our problem.
"They were good fastballs and also sneaky fast, we seemed uncomfortable in a lot of at-bats. We were able to string the one run in the fourth and I thought that would get us rolling but credit Gordon for locking back in and pitching three innings after that.”
UCF's needed insurance run came in the ninth inning, when Taylor Broadway gave up a double and his fielding error on the next hitter brought in the run.
Doug Nikhazy, who left in the second inning of his first start of the season, was dominant through six frames before two solo home runs in the seventh flipped the night. Nikhazy allowed a single to the second batter of the game but didn’t allow another hit until his final inning.
The junior struck out 10 with one walk on 90 pitches.
"Couple adjustments and sort of an attitude adjustment,” Nikhazy said. “Wanted to come out with a little more fire. What makes me good is to compete and try my best to push out zeroes without looking forward or back.”
Nikhazy pitched plenty well enough to win, but Ole Miss couldn’t get to Gordon, especially with the top of the order. The 2-5 spots in the order went 1-for-15. Senior captain Tim Elko is 2-for-18 to start the season with seven strikeouts.
Elko did have the highest exit velocity of any ball in play Friday at 111 MPH.
“He’s probably pressing a little bit. Sometimes when you press you get caught in between,” Bianco said about Elko. “You can’t catch the fastball but you’re out in front of the breaking ball. That happened to him a couple times tonight. He needs to stay true to the approach and go for it. He’s going to figure it out, and I hope he figures it out at 1 p.m. tomorrow.”
Ole Miss was 2-for-10 with runners on base and 1-for-5 with runners in scoring position. The leadoff batter reached base just once.
