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Castellano Shines in Relief, No. 20 UCF Wins Fourth Straight Big 12 Series

by James Warnick
Box Score

ORLANDO – Dominic Castellano struck out a career-high eight batters over a career-long 5.2 innings of impressive relief to help No. 20 UCF win its fourth straight Big 12 series with a 6-1 victory over Kansas State on Sunday afternoon at John Euliano Park.

With starter Wiley Hartley having exited the ballgame after the first inning due to an apparent injury, Castellano came on from the bullpen and pitched extremely well over 5.2 innings. He faced the minimum in three of his near-six innings of work and allowed just one unearned run on two hits. He also issued just two free passes while fanning a season-high for all UCF pitchers with the eight punchouts. Senior right-hander Kyle Kramer then came on for his second outing of the series and finished K-State off by tossing the final 2.1 innings of perfect relief.

“That’s a tough spot to come in that early, but for him (Castellano) to come in and pitch the way that he did to both left-handed and right-handed hitters and field his position, I couldn’t ask for more out of Dom,” head UCF coach Rich Wallace said. “It’s big for us to have a guy that’s a Swiss Army Knife back there that can come in short relief, long relief and start a game. He’s a valuable asset.

“Kyle (Kramer) tells me that he can pitch every day if it’s less than 30 pitches. He knows he only has so many opportunities left, and he’s making the most of it.”

The Knights, who are ranked 20th this week by Perfect Game and 25th by D1Baseball, improve to 21-8 overall and 8-7 in Big 12 play after winning their fourth straight league series. During the stretch, UCF has taken two of three from Oklahoma State, Kansas, Texas Tech and now Kansas State. Over its last 10 games, UCF has won eight of them. K-State, who is currently receiving votes for both the latest NCBWA and ESPN/USA Today Coach polls, falls to 20-10 and 7-5 in conference play with the setback.

Early in the game, the Black and Gold took advantage of a trio of K-State errors in the second to jump out to a 2-0 lead. With runners on the corners and one away, AJ Nessler grounded a ball to third that KSU’s third baseman threw away trying to cut down Jack Zyska at the plate. Andrew Brait also came around to score all the way from first on the same play as another throw got away from K-State’s catcher.

The Wildcats made it a 2-1 game in the third by pushing across an unearned run, but it ended up being all the offense KSU could muster as Castellano and Kramer shut the door on them the rest of the way.  

With Castellano continuing to put up zeros on the mound in relief, the Black and Gold loaded the bases with nobody out in the last of the fifth following a leadoff walk drawn by Dylan King and back-to-back bunt singles from Mikey Kluska and Matt Prevesk. Braden Calise then drove in the first of three runs in the frame with an RBI fielder’s choice. Lex Boedicker then followed with an RBI groundout, and Danny Neri capped the frame with a sharp RBI single to center to bring in Calise and give the Knights a 5-1 lead.

The Knights got back-to-back doubles from King and Kluska in the sixth to bring in an insurance run. King first hit his first double in a UCF uniform with a one-out double to left center and Kluska followed with a double into the leftfield corner to bring him home.

The senior reliever Kramer then closed out the game with 2.1 innings of scoreless relief to seal the win for the Knights. Over two appearances in the series, Kramer did not surrender a hit or a run off of him over 4.1 innings.

Castellano earned the win in relief to improve to 3-0 on the season. KSU starter Blake Dean was tagged with the loss after giving up four run (two earned) over 4.0 innings to fall to 2-3.

Kluska led UCF offensively in the ballgame by going 2-for-3 with a double, a run scored and a run batted in. Prevesk also had a two-hit game by going 2-for-4, while King went 1-for-3 with a double, a walk and two runs scored.

The series win marks UCF’s first series victory when nationally ranked since March 8-10, 2020, when the then-14th-ranked Knights swept Butler in a non-conference series at home.

The Black and Gold will now hit the road for a Wednesday midweek at nearby foe Stetson. Following Wednesday's midweek, UCF will head to the Mountain State to face West Virginia in a three-game Big 12 series Friday to Sunday.