ORLANDO – Fresh off a 3-0 week on the road last week, the UCF baseball team will open its final homestand of the season by hosting in-state foe North Florida on Tuesday evening at John Euliano Park.
The midweek contest that was originally scheduled to be played on Wednesday, was moved up to Tuesday at 6 p.m. to accommodate UNF’s scheduling challenges. It will mark the first of five final home games to be played at John Euliano Park. The Knights will also welcome Texas to town for the first time in program history for a key Big 12 series this weekend. The Black and Gold will then close their home season by taking on Bethune-Cookman on Tuesday, May 14. Tuesday’s UCF vs. UNF game will air live on Big 12 Now on ESPN+ and live stats will also be available by visiting ucf.statbroadcast.com.
The Knights will enter Tuesday with a 29-15 overall record and currently in ninth place in the Big 12 Conference standings with an 11-12 record. The top 10 teams will make the 2024 Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship that will run May 21-25 at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas. UCF has just two league series remaining with this week’s home series against the Longhorns and next week’s final series at Baylor.
The Black and Gold went a perfect 3-0 last week with a 6-2 midweek victory at North Florida followed by going 2-0 at Houston, as the Knights claimed their fifth Big 12 series of the season. Sunday’s finale at Houston was rained out.
UCF had strong pitching in the series against the Cougars, as Ben Vespi tied a career-high by going 7.0 innings in game one and Andrew Sundean provided all the offense the Knights would need with a two-run home run to top UH by a score of 4-1. The senior Vespi gave up just one run on two hits while striking out five. He faced the minimum in four of his seven innings and retired the first 10 batters he faced to move to 3-2 on the season. Dominic Castellano then came on and pitched scoreless eighth and ninth frames to earn his second save. As a staff, the Knights limited the Cougars to just two hits on the evening.
Sundean blasted out his first home run since coming back from injury with a booming two-run shot in the third inning. Lex Boedicker and Jack Zyska also drove home runs in the game for the Black and Gold.
The Knights then got another strong start from starter Dom Stagliano on Saturday, as he tossed 5.2 innings of no-hit baseball. Stagliano retired the first nine batters that he faced and ended up allowing just one hit and three runs while tying a season-high with seven strikeouts. Kyle Kramer would follow and went on to surrender just one run on two hits while fanning three over an inning and two-thirds to earn his team-high sixth victory of the season (6-3). The redshirt sophomore Kris Sosnowski then tossed the final inning and two-thirds of scoreless relief to earn his second career save.
UCF opened a 4-0 lead in the contest thanks to RBI hits from Danny Neri in the first, Mikey Kluska in the fifth, and Anthony Calabro and Neri in the sixth. The Cougars struck back with a grand slam with two outs in the bottom of the sixth from Harold Coll to tie things up at 4-4.
After strong pitching from Kramer and Sosnowski in the late innings, the Black and Gold managed to load the bases with two outs in the top of the eighth by drawing a trio of walks. Senior shortstop Kluska delivered the big hit of the game with a go-ahead two-run single to give the Knights a late 6-4 advantage. Sosnowski would go on to record his second save of the season with an inning and two-third of scoreless relief.
Over the three games last week, Matt Prevesk led the way by hitting an even .400 with a triple and two runs scored. Kluska was next with a .364 clip, a double, two runs scored and three runs batted in. Boedicker too had a strong week at the plate by hitting .357 with a triple, a stolen base and two RBIs. Zyska and Sundean both homered on the week for the Black and Gold. Vespi led the starting staff by going 1-0 with a 1.29 ERA and five punchouts over 7.0 innings, while Sosnowski pitched 4.0 scoreless innings of relief to earn a pair of saves.
On the season, the junior outfielder Prevesk paces the Knights with a .352 batting average. He also has 14 extra-base hits, 29 RBIs and 33 runs scored. Senior outfielder Zyska is next with a .319 average and leads the way in the power numbers with team-leading tallies of 10 home runs, 40 RBIs, 39 runs scored and a .995 OPS. Junior first baseman Boedicker follows with a .287 average and leads the way in doubles with 11 and is second in RBIs (37) and runs scored (35). Stagliano paces the starting rotation with a 4.07 ERA and is limiting opposing hitters to just a .196 average, while Vespi fronts the team with 55 strikeouts over 58.2 innings. The southpaw Castellano leads the way from the bullpen with a perfect 5-0 record and a 2.66 ERA and 50 strikeouts over 44.0 innings of work.
Scheduled Starting Pitchers for Tuesday
Junior right-hander Wiley Hartley is scheduled to make his first start back from an injury for UCF on Tuesday, as he’ll go up against UNF righty Brett Dennis. Hartley is 2-2 with a 3.09 ERA on the year and made his last appearance one month ago in a start against Kansas State on April 7. Dennis will enter Tuesday with a 0-2 record and a 6.89 ERA. It will mark the sixth start of the season for both Hartley and Dennis.
About North Florida
Tuesday’s ballgame will mark the third and final season meeting between the Knight and Ospreys. UCF will be looking for the clean sweep after taking the opener, 10-3, at home on April 16, as well as a 6-2 victory in Jacksonville last Tuesday. UNF will come to Orlando with a 20-24 overall record and currently in ninth place in the Atlantic Sun Conference with a 10-13 record. The Ospreys went 1-2 last week with the midweek setback to UCF followed by splitting two games at Kennesaw State, Sunday’s finale was also rained out. North Florida was picked to finish ninth out of 12 teams in the ASUN this season after finishing 11th last season with a 28-27 overall record and a 13-17 league mark.
Jakob Runnels leads UNF on the year with a .305 batting average and team-leading tallies of nine homers and 30 runs scored. Tripp McKinlay is right behind him with a .304 clip and leads the way in runs batted in with 37. Tony Roca paces the North Florida pitching staff with a 5-2 record and a 2.55 ERA, while Peter Holden fronts the team in strikeouts with 66 in 55.2 innings.
North Florida is coached by former UCF assistant Joe Mercadante. Mercadante is in his first season of coaching at UNF.
All-Time Series vs. North Florida
Tuesday’s midweek will mark the third and final season meeting between UCF and UNF and the 37th all-time meeting. The Knights will enter play holding to a 21-15 series advantage and an 11-8 lead with games played at home. UCF has won five of the last six meetings between the in-state foes.
Knights 12-2 vs. Sunshine State Foes, 10-1 in Midweek Action
UCF is off to an impressive 12-2 start against in-state foes in 2024 thanks to road wins over No. 4 Florida, Miami, Florida Atlantic, Jacksonville, Bethune-Cookman and North Florida as well as home midweek wins over Stetson, FAU, UNF, and FGCU and taking two of three at home from South Florida. The Knights are also 10-1 in midweek contests after opening the year 7-0. In midweek games, UCF has outscored its opponents with an impressive tally of 86 to 35.
Top 35 in the RPI
UCF holds the fourth highest RPI in the Big 12 Conference, as it enters the week with the nation’s 31st-best RPI. The Knights have been ranked as high as third nationally in the RPI this year, as they were ranked No. 3 in that category in early March. UCF was also ranked in the Top 25 for the first two weeks of April and made it as high as No. 16 by the NCBWA and No. 17 by D1Baseball and Perfect Game on the April 8 poll. It marked the first time that the Knights had been in the Top 25 since February of 2021.
On Deck
UCF will continue the homestand with its final home Big 12 series of the season Friday to Sunday at John Euliano Park. Friday and Saturday’s games are each set for 6 p.m. while Sunday’s finale will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday will mark Senior Knight for the Black and Gold.
🚨 Due to scheduling challenges for UNF, this week's game has been moved up a day and will now take place Tuesday, May 7 at 6 PM at John Euliano Park 🚨 pic.twitter.com/JvpacPoKZZ
— UCF Baseball (@UCF_Baseball) May 6, 2024