DELAND, Fla. – Stetson scored four runs in the sixth inning to top No. 16 UCF by a score of 5-3 in midweek action on Wednesday night at Melching Field.
The result marks the Black and Gold’s first midweek setback of the season, as UCF drops to 7-1 in midweek contests and 21-9 overall. Despite suffering the defeat, the Knights have still won eight of their last 11 ballgames and are 9-2 against Sunshine State foes on the year.
“We looked like we were on it early, they then went to Jacobs and he pitched well, and we had a hard time making adjustments against him,” head UCF coach Rich Wallace said. “We had a couple of chances with some ground balls to get Kramer off of the field in that sixth inning, but we didn’t get it done.”
The Black and Gold got off to a strong start with a pair of runs in the first and another in the second to jump out to an early 3-0 lead. Matt Prevesk started things off with a leadoff single and later came around to score on an RBI double off the bat of Jack Zyska. Following a two-out walk from Danny Neri, Andrew Brait drove Zyska home with an RBI single to make it 2-0. AJ Nessler then doubled with one away in the second and Braden Calise followed by legging out an infield hit with two outs in the frame to bring in Nessler from third and give UCF the early three-run advantage.
After Cade Boxrucker didn’t allow a hit over two-plus innings of work, the Knights went to the bullpen with a runner on first and nobody out in the third. Stetson (23-10) managed to push across a run in the frame after back-to-back singles to make it a 3-1 game.
With UCF’s bullpen pitching well and putting up zeros into the sixth, the Hatters then managed to piece together a four-run rally to take a 5-3 lead. With two on and one away in the frame, Stetson got back-to-back-to-back RBI hits to take a 4-3 advantage. The Hatters added another run on a sacrifice fly to extend their lead to 5-3.
Still down a pair in the ninth, Nessler worked a one-out walk to bring the tying run to the plate. Stetson’s Bendan Walker managed to earn a three-inning save, however, by retiring the next two batters he faced to secure the win for the Hatters.
Stetson’s Dylan Jacobs was credited with his first win of the season after tossing five innings of relief to improve 1-1, while Walker came on to pitch the final three frames to record his first save. Kyle Kramer was tagged with his first loss of the year to drop to 5-1.
The senior Zyska led UCF offensively in the contest by going 2-for-4 with a double, an RBI and a run scored. Nessler also had a nice showing by going 1-for-2 with a double, a run scored and two walks. Najer Victor led the way for the Black and Gold on the mound by tossing the final 2.2 innings and surrendered just one hit and no runs while striking out four. The senior right-hander allowed just one base runner to reach off of him over the 2.2 innings of solid relief.
With the result, the Knights and Hatters split the season series at a game apiece.
UCF is currently ranked as high as 16th this week by the NCBWA and 17th by both D1Baseball and Perfect Game. The Knights are also currently tabbed 19th on this week’s Baseball America and ESPN/USA Today Coaches polls and hold the nation’s fifth-best RPI.
The Knights will now travel to Morgantown, West Virginia, for a three-game Big 12 series at West Virginia this weekend. The series will run Friday to Sunday at Wagener Field at Monongalia County Ballpark. Friday’s opener is set for 6:30 p.m., while Saturday will begin at 4 p.m. and first pitch for Sunday’s finale is slated for 1 p.m. All three games will air live on Big 12 Now on ESPN+.