JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Jack Zyska belted out a go-ahead seventh-inning home run and Tyler Kozera and Kris Sosnowski pitched well down the stretch to help lead UCF to a 6-2 midweek victory over North Florida on Tuesday evening at Harmon Stadium.
The Knights move to 27-15 overall and an impressive 10-1 in midweek games as well as 12-2 versus in-state foes with the victory. UCF also secures the season series against the Ospreys (19-23), as the two will close the three-game season-series next Wednesday (May 8) at John Euliano Park.
“We could have made this game a lot easier in the early innings, but we put a lot of pressure on ourself. Andrew Brait’s double got us going a little bit, and Tyler Kozera was able to pump a bunch of energy into the dugout when he took the mound,” head UCF coach Rich Wallace said. “We then got a chance with Zyska with two outs, and his home run pretty much relaxed everybody.”
How about 3 💣 in 4 games for Jack?
— UCF Baseball (@UCF_Baseball) May 1, 2024
The go-ahead when we needed it 👇 pic.twitter.com/pDfjtsQozr
After both teams left the bases loaded in the first, UCF took advantage of an Osprey error in the second to push across a run. With Danny Neri and Mikey Kluska on the base paths with two away, Andrew Brait reached on a ball that got past the UNF third baseman which resulted in Neri coming in to score from second base to give the Black and Gold an early 1-0 advantage.
North Florida picked up a run in the third to knot the score at 1-1. After Tyler Nesbitt retired UNF in order in the fourth, Brait then doubled down the line in the top of the fifth. He later moved to third on a ground ball to the right side from Lex Boedicker and scored on a wild pith to give the Knights a 2-1 lead.
UNF then tied the game at 2-2 in the fifth, as the UCF defense traded a double play for a run. The right-hander Kozera entered the game on the mound for the Black and Gold and had an impressive outing. The freshman went a season-long 2.2 innings and gave up just one hit and no runs while striking out a season-high three batters.
Still tied at 2-2 in the seventh, Brait reached on an error for the third time in the game. With two outs and Zyska later at the plate, the sixth-year senior outfielder belted out his team-leading 10th home run of the season with a two-run shot to center field to put the Knights on top for good. The round tripper marked Zyska’s third in the team’s last four games as well as his sixth in the month of April.
Sosnowski entered the game on the mound for the Black and Gold in the late innings and tossed 2.1 innings of shutout relief. Sosnowski surrendered just one hit while fanning three over the solid outing.
Holding to the 4-2 advantage in the ninth, the Knight offense managed to push across a couple of insurance runs to go on to win by a score of 6-2. Kluska started the inning with a double and Brait followed with a walk. Boedicker then singled and Kluska came in to score on UNF’s fifth error of the game to make it 5-2. Andrew Sundean then drove in the sixth run of the game with a sacrifice fly to center to cap the scoring.
Nesbitt started on the mound for UCF and allowed just two runs on four hits over four-plus innings of work. Kozera then came on and earned his first career win on the mound to move to 1-0. Sosnowski capped things off to earn his first career save. UNF’s Clayton Boroski was tagged with the loss to drop to 1-3.
Zyska led UCF at the plate by going 1-for-2 with two walks, a run scored, two runs batted in, and the clutch home run. With his two RBIs, Zyska set a single-season career-high with 39 runs batted in on the year, besting his previous mark of 38 that he had during the 2022 campaign while at Notre Dame. Matt Prevesk had a two-hit night by going 2-for-5, while Brait reached base five times and scored three runs. Cherokee Nichols led North Florida by going 2-for-4.
The Knights will return to Big 12 Conference play this weekend, as they’ll travel to Lone Star State for a three-game series at Houston. The series will run Friday to Sunday at UH’s Schroeder Park (Friday at 7:30 p.m. ET/6:30 p.m. CT, Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET/6:30 p.m. CT, Sunday at 2 p.m. ET/1 p.m. CT).