Albritton strong after layoff

After not starting a game in over a month, Daniel Albritton kicked off the dust in a 6-3 win over No. 23 UCF on Tuesday night.

Despite the time between starts, Albritton pitched six solid innings, giving up only one run on three hits against the Golden Knights at Jay Bergman Field in Orlando.

“He pitched extremely well,” coach Eddie Cardieri said. “It’s been a while. He’s very resilient so we can use him out of the bullpen like we did on the weekend, and if he doesn’t throw a whole lot he can start on Tuesdays.”

The freshman has had to split the weekday-game starts with Nick Manganaro and Chase Lirette. He got the start Tuesday because he has pitched well in relief and because Lirette faced UCF a week ago.

After Albritton started in a 17-3 loss to Miami on March 17, the only action he has seen has been out of the bullpen.

Friday against TCU he came in and got the win in relief and then pitched well in a loss to the Horned Frogs Saturday, setting up Tuesday’s start.

“And chances are he’s going to be ready to pitch (again in relief the next weekend),” Cardieri said.

The Bulls were reeling from consecutive losses over the weekend to TCU, but they traveled to UCF and beat the Golden Knights for the second time this season.

When Albritton exited the game he got the run support for the win in the top half of the next inning.

Jeff Baisley hit his fourth home run of the year, and three Golden Knight errors helped score five unearned runs.

The Bulls are undefeated (8-0) in their Tuesday games this season.