DELAND, Fla. - Stetson got contributions from every part of their lineup, as all nine starters reached base safely, helping the Hatters put five runs on the board and slay the #16 UCF Knights 5-3 Wednesday night. The Hatters erased a 3-0 deficit before putting up a four spot in the sixth inning. They have now won 10 of their last 11 games as they pick up their second win against a ranked opponent, last beating #4 Florida on Feb. 27. The two now break even on the season as the Hatters get their revenge after falling to the Knights 7-1 earlier in the year.

"Beating those guys at home, and actually being down in the beginning and having Jacobs and Walker, both of those guys came in and shut the door and gave us a chance. That was big time pitching for us," said Head Coach Steve Trimper. "Obviously we want to win in front of the home crowd and if you play Division-1 baseball in the state of Florida, you're gonna play good teams so these are very important midweek games for us for RPI. We're still trying to get in the hunt for an at-large which we have to do a lot of things right and secondly, our conference is built off of that for the tournament and we saw that last year so these are games that can vault our RPI up."

Junior Dylan Jacobs picked up the victory out of the bullpen for Stetson as he now holds a 1-1 record on the season. The right-hander went five innings, giving up one run on four hits, allowing two walks and striking out five. Sophomore Brendan Walker also made an impact on the mound for the Hatters, throwing three scoreless innings while allowing no hits, with one walk and four strikeouts.

In the batter's box, junior Yohann Dessureault went 1-for-3 on the day with a double and an RBI. Brothers Brandon Hylton and Jayden Hylton compiled noteworthy games on National Siblings Day as the former went 2-for-3 with an RBI while the latter chipped in with one hit in four trips to the plate while adding an RBI, as well.

Trailing 3-0, the Hatters first put runs on the board in the third inning. Stetson got an RBI single from junior Gio Cueto, scoring sophomore Lorenzo Meola from second base.

The Hatters kept the Knights off the board before taking the lead in the sixth. The Stetson offense exploded for four runs, highlighted by a one-out double down the left line by Dessureault to put the Hatters out in front. Meola's sacrifice fly out extended the lead to 5-3, which would last the rest of the game, as Stetson held on for the win. 

The Hatters out-hit the Knights at an 8-7 clip while going 4-for-11 (.364) with runners in scoring position. Stetson's pitching staff faced 38 UCF hitters in the game, forcing 14 ground balls and four fly balls while striking out nine.

Stetson looks to stay hot as they return to conference play this weekend with ASUN rival FGCU visiting. The Hatters will host the Eagles at Melching Field from Friday to Sunday with the former two games starting at 6:30 PM and the finale at 1:00 PM. All the action will be streamed to ESPN+ and live stats will be available at gohatters.com.