Baseball Drops Game One to No. 10 West Virginia, 4-1Baseball Drops Game One to No. 10 West Virginia, 4-1

Baseball Drops Game One to No. 10 West Virginia, 4-1

by James Warnick
Box Score

ORLANDO – Despite limiting No. 10 West Virginia to only one hit on the night, the UCF baseball team dropped the series opener by a score of 4-1 on Friday evening at John Euliano Park.

Four Black and Gold pitchers combined to allow just one hit, but WVU took advantage of 10 free passes on its way to claiming the contest. The Mountaineers remain in first place in the Big 12 standings with the victory and move to 35-5 overall and 14-3 in league play. UCF drops to 23-18 overall and 6-13 in conference play with the setback.

“Obviously, that’s a really good ball club,” head coach Rich Wallace said. “I thought that we came out and did some good things in the beginning of the game—with some solid defensive plays and pitching. But we ended up giving them 15 free bases with hit batters, walks and stolen bases, and they took advantage.”

Deadlocked in a scoreless pitcher’s duel in the fifth inning, WVU managed to load the bases with one out on a trio of free passes. The Mountaineers then scored the first run of the game via a sacrifice fly, but WVU’s Brodie Kresser was doubled off on the play after leaving second base too early to end the frame.

The Knights then answered in the bottom of the fifth with a run of their own to tie the game. Braden Calise reached on an error with two outs and Dylan King followed by getting hit by a pitch. DeAmez Ross then plated Calise with a two-out RBI single to center field to make it 1-1.

After a scoreless sixth, the Mountaineers then manufactured a run in the top of the seventh to take a 2-1 advantage. Following a single, a walk and a double steal, Kresser then drove in Armani Guzman with a sac fly to right. West Virginia then loaded the bases with nobody out in the eighth and added a run on another sac fly and one more on an RBI groundout to extend its lead to 4-1.

The Knights looked to answer back by loading the bases with nobody out in the last of the eighth, but WVU’s Chase Meyer managed to pitch out of it by retiring the next three batters he faced to keep it a 4-1 score.

After Kevin Schoneboom retired three of the four Mountaineers he faced in the top of the ninth which included a pair of strikeouts, the Black and Gold then had another opportunity in the bottom of the ninth as the first two batters reached on free passes. But WVU’s Carson Estridge pitched out of it with a strike out and a game-ending double play to seal the victory for the Mountaineers.

Camden Wicker started on the mound for the Black and Gold and was good early, as he faced the minimum over the first three innings. He ended up allowing just one run on no hits while striking out four and walking two over 5.0 innings. Dom Stagliano then came on and gave WVU’s only hit of the game and one run over an inning and a third and Dominic Castellano followed by surrendering two unearned runs over an inning of work. Schoneboom then finished things off with 1.2 scoreless frames.

Reese Bassinger earned the win in relief for WVU to move to 5-0 on the season and his teammate Estridge was credited with his fourth save after tossing a scoreless ninth. Stagliano was tagged with the loss to drop to 1-3.

Ross led the Knights offensively by going 3-for-4 with an RBI while Williamson also had multiple hits as he went 2-for-5. Kyle West was the lone Mountaineer to record a hit, as he went 1-for-3 with a one-out single in the seventh inning.  

The Knights and Mountaineers will continue the series on Saturday at 6 p.m. The two will then close the weekend set on Sunday at 1 p.m. Both games will air live on ESPN+ as well as FM 96.9 The Game.