Clearwater, Fla. – For the second time in as many tournaments, the Knights are headed to the American Athletic Conference Championship Semifinal. The No. 5 seed UCF (30-28) are set to face the No. 1 seed East Carolina (39-14) on Saturday, May 29 at 9 a.m. ET, aired on ESPN+.
Marc Daniels will have the call on FM96.9/AM740 The Game.
The UCF baseball team defeated the No. 8 seeded Memphis in seven innings, 17-1, in the second round of the tournament to pick up its semifinal bid. The No. 1 seed East Carolina fell in their opening round contest against Memphis but picked up back-to-back victories over Cincinnati and Memphis to punch their ticket to the semifinal round.
Click here for Championship Central and to see the updated schedule and coverage for the 2021 American Athletic Conference Championship.
KNIGHTS NOTABLES
- In their second win of the American Athletic Conference Championship, the Knights set the record for home runs in a single game, with seven.
- UCF picked up a first round victory in AAC Championship for the first time since 2014, defeating Cincinnati in a thriller, 14-10.
- Sitting a 2-0 in the Championship, UCF is undefeated through the first two games of the conference tournament for the first time since 2014.
- Jordan Rathbone's 16 home runs in 2021 leads the Knights and is tied for fifth all-time in UCF program history.
- The Knights have stolen 86 bases as a team, led by Gephry Pena with 27 to lead the American Athletic Conference.
- During regular season play, the Black and Gold split the four-game series with East Carolina on the road.
- Jordan Rathbone was unanimously named to the First Team AAC All-Conference team on Monday, joined by Colton Gordon, Josh Crouch and Gephry Pena on the Second Team.
PACING THE PIRATES
- The top-seeded Pirates fell in their opening round of the Championship by mercy rule to the No. 8 seed Memphis on Tuesday, 11-1.
- In order to earn the semifinal bid, East Carolina defeated the No. 4 seed Cincinnati, 13-9, and Memphis in a rematch, 12-0.
- East Carolina is 4-0 against the Knights in post season, the last time the two teams met in the tournament was 2018 in the first round; the Pirates won 8-4 and went on to win the tournament.
- Named the American Athletic Conference Player of the Year, ECU is led by second baseman Connor Norby.
- Norby enters the tournament leading the nation with 89 hits, 6th with a .420 batting average, fifth with 140 total bases and 16th with 56 runs. He has also slugged 12 home runs, driven in 42 RBI and collected 30 multi-hit games on the year.
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