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Baseball Takes on Rival South Florida in AAC Tournament

AMERICAN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT
The No. 4 seed UCF baseball team is set to continue its postseason run with No. 8 South Florida in the American Athletic Conference Baseball Championship, presented by Visit St. Pete Clearwater, at 1 p.m. Thursday, May 25 at BayCare Ballpark in Clearwater, Florida.

The tournament will be played in a double-elimination format through the semifinal round. The championship final is a winner-take-all matchup Sunday, May 28, which will determine The American's automatic entrant to the NCAA Championship.
 
Game Seven
Date: Thursday
Time: 1 p.m.
Location: Clearwater, Fla.
Site: BayCare Ballpark
Watch on ESPN+
View Live Stats
More Information on theamerican.org
 
LAST TIME OUT
The Knights played in the opening game of the tournament, scoring the first run and earning the first win of The American postseason in a 4-3 walk off thriller against No. 5 Cincinnati.
Cameron Leiter pitched a lights-out game, going seven scoreless innings with nine strikeouts, allowing only four hits and one walk. Three Knights had multi-hit games, including Andrew Brait, whose second hit of the day was a solo home run for the walk-off.
 
PREVIOUS MEETINGS
UCF and South Florida have met six times this year, splitting the season series 3-3. In their most recent matchup, the Knights secured the series at South Florida with a mercy-rule 11-1 victory in eight innings. In the game, freshman Drew Faurot hit his third grand slam and Andrew Sundean's 2-run homer gave the Knights the ten-run lead for the run rule.
 
UCF IN THE TOURNAMENT
UCF improved to an all-time 13-15 record in the conference tournament. In the previous two seasons, UCF went 6-4 in the tournament, with wins over five of the seven American Conference opponents.

The Knights have only met South Florida once in the AAC postseason, falling 8-7 in the 2021 championship game to be eliminated from the tournament. South Florida was the No. 6 seed and held onto the win as both teams threw three scoreless frames to end the game.

In the same year, the Knights went 2-0 to begin the tournament, defeating Cincinnati in the 9 a.m. opening game.
 
BOMB SQUAD
Continuing the narrative in the Knights' season of historic home run milestones, Brait's solo shot to end game one was the third walk-off home run of the UCF season and the 108th total home run by the Knights offense.
 
More information on AAC Championship schedules and ticketing can be found here.
 
2023 American Athletic Conference Baseball Championship presented by Visit St. Pete Clearwater
BayCare Ballpark | Clearwater, Fla.
All Times Eastern
 
Tuesday, May 23
Game 1: No. 5 Cincinnati vs. No. 4 UCF | 9 a.m. | ESPN+
Game 2: No. 8 South Florida vs. No. 1 East Carolina | 47 minutes after Game 1 | ESPN+
Game 3: No. 7 Tulane vs. No. 2 Houston | 4 p.m. | ESPN+
Game 4: No. 6 Memphis vs. No. 3 Wichita State | 47 minutes after Game 3 | ESPN+
 
Wednesday, May 24
Game 5: No. 5 Cincinnati vs. No. 1 East Carolina | 3 p.m. | ESPN+

Thursday, May 25
Game 6: No. 2 Houston vs. No. 3 Wichita State | 9 a.m. | ESPN+
Game 7: No. 4 UCF vs. No. 8 South Florida | 1 p.m. | ESPN+
Game 8: No. 7 Tulane vs. No. 6 Memphis | 47 minutes after Game 7 | ESPN+

Friday, May 26
Game 9: Game 5 Winner vs. Game 7 Loser | 1 p.m. | ESPN+
Game 10: Game 6 Winner vs. Game 8 Loser | 47 minutes after Game 9 | ESPN+

Saturday, May 27
Game 11: Game 9 Winner vs. Game 7 Winner | 9 a.m. | ESPN+
Game 12: Game 10 Winner vs. Game 8 Winner | 47 minutes after Game 11 | ESPN+
Game 13: Game 9 Winner vs. Game 7 Winner (If Necessary) | TBD | ESPN+
Game 14: Game 10 Winner vs. Game 8 Winner (If Necessary) | TBD | ESPN+

Sunday, May 28
Game 15: Semifinal Winners | Noon | ESPNEWS and ESPN+