ORLANDO – For the first time since 2017, the UCF baseball team has been selected to take part in the 2024 NCAA Tournament as it has received an at-large bid to participate in the NCAA Tallahassee Regional that will run May 31-June 3 at Florida State’s Dick Howser Stadium.
The Black and Gold (35-19) will enter as a No. 3 seed and will open play against second-seeded Alabama (33-22) on Friday at 6 p.m. ET. The host and No. 8 national seed Florida State (42-15) will begin play on Friday at noon ET and will take on the No. 4 seed Stetson (40-20).
Under first-year head coach Rich Wallace, the Black and Gold will head to Tallahassee with a 35-19 overall record and with the nation’s 33rd ranked RPI. After taking eighth in their first season of competition in the Big 12 Conference with a 14-15 league record, the Knights then went on to advance to the Big 12 Baseball Championship semifinal round this past week in the team’s inaugural Big 12 Tournament appearance. UCF finished with a 2-1 mark at the 2024 Big 12 Championship, with a 6-5 extra-inning win over the No. 5 seed Cincinnati in the opening round and a 7-6 extra-inning victory over the eventual champion Oklahoma State Cowboys in the quarterfinals. The Knights then had their Big 12 Championship run come to a close with a 10-1 setback to the No. 2 seed and 17th-ranked Cowboys in the tournament’s single-elimination semifinals.
After setting a single-game Big 12 Championship record with three home runs in UCF’s tournament opener against the Bearcats, Black and Gold senior catcher Danny Neri earned Big 12 Baseball Championship All-Tournament Team honors following the title game on Saturday night. For the week, Neri hit .500 with three home runs, a double, four runs scored, and five runs batted in. He also posted a ridiculous 2.143 OPS over three games at the conference tournament.
The NCAA Tournament bid marks UCF’s 13th Regional appearance in program history. The Black and Gold last took part in the same Tallahassee Regional in 2017. Of UCF’s 12 all-time NCAA Regional appearances, eight have been in Tallahassee, as this will mark the Knights’ ninth time participating in the Tallahassee Regional.
For tickets and for more information, visit the Regional Central page at Seminoles.com.