ORLANDO – The UCF baseball team will host No. 18 Texas for a key Big 12 Conference series this weekend at John Euliano Park. The series will mark the Black and Gold’s final home series of the season and Texas’ first trip to Orlando.
The series will run Friday to Sunday at John Euilano Park. Friday and Saturday’s games are set for 6 p.m., while Sunday’s series finale will begin at 1 p.m. All three games will air live on Big 12 Now on ESPN+ as well as 96.9 The Game. Live stats will also be available throughout the weekend by visiting ucf.statbroadcast.com. Saturday will mark Senior Knight for UCF, as 17 seniors will be honored prior to first pitch.
“Offensively, we are going to have our hands full this weekend,” head UCF coach Rich Wallace said. “They are an offensive heavy team. We are going to have to pitch well to keep us in the game. It’s going to come down to us pitching, defending, and executing and being timely on offense for us to come out on top.”
With just two conference series remaining, the Knights will enter the weekend with a 30-15 overall record and currently in ninth place in the Big 12 standings with an 11-12 league mark. The top 10 teams will advance to the 2024 Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship that will be held May 21-25 at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas.
UCF has won four straight contests after sweeping Houston in a rain-shortened two-game league series on the road last weekend as well as a pair of midweek wins over in-state foe North Florida. The series win over Houston marked the Black and Gold’s fifth Big 12 series victory of the season.
Pitching was key at Houston last weekend, as senior Ben Vespi and junior Dom Stagliano both had strong starts against the Cougars. In Friday’s opener, Vespi tied a career-high by going 7.0 innings and gave up just one run on two hits while striking out five. Stagliano then followed that up with 5.2 innings of no-hit baseball. He finished allowing three runs on one hit while striking out seven over 5.2 innings of work.
Andrew Sundean hit out his first home run since returning to the lineup from an injury with a two-run shot on Friday and Mikey Kluska delivered a clutch go-ahead eighth-inning two-run single on Saturday.
The Knights then swept a three-game season-series from North Florida by taking Tuesday’s midweek by a score of 7-4. Down a run in the fifth, senior Anthony Calabro belted out his first career grand slam in a UCF uniform to help lead the Black and Gold to victory and move to 11-1 in midweeks. The Knight bullpen was again strong in the contest, by not surrendering an earned run over seven innings of action. As a whole, UCF’s staff struck out 12 batters on the night.
Senior reliever Kyle Kramer earned his team-leading seventh victory of the season after striking out four over two shutout innings. Kris Sosnowski then came on and retired three of the four batters he faced in the ninth to earn his third save over the Knights’ last four games.
The bullpen has been key during UCF’s current four-game winning streak, as it has allowed just one earned run (three total) on 10 hits over 17.1 innings while striking out 24 batters. The ‘pen has also posted a 3-0 record with four saves and an impressive 0.52 ERA during the stretch. Sosnowski, Dominic Castellano, Tyler Kozera and Najer Victor have all posted perfect 0.00 earned run averages, while Kramer has gone 2-0 with a 2.45 ERA.
Matt Prevesk has led the Knights over the past four games by hitting .500 with a triple and four runs scored. Kluska is next with a .333 average, a double, four RBIs and two runs scored, while Danny Neri too has hit .333 with two runs batted in and four runs scored.
On the season, the junior outfielder Prevesk paces the offense with a .360 batting average. He also has 14 extra-base hits, 35 runs scored and 29 RBIs. Senior Jack Zyska is next with a .319 average and leads the team with 10 homers, 11 doubles, 40 runs batted in, 40 runs scored, and a 1.002 OPS. Fellow senior Andrew Brait is next with a .285 average and 32 runs scored. The southpaw Castellano leads the pitching staff with a 5-0 record and a 2.58 ERA. Stagliano fronts the starting rotation with a 4.07 ERA, while Vespi holds a 3-2 record and a team-high 55 strikeouts over 58.2 innings.
Scheduled Starting Pitchers for the Series
The senior right-hander Vespi will make his 13th consecutive Friday night start. Vespi is 3-2 with a 4.45 ERA. Fellow righty Stagliano will then get the ball for the Knights for his 11th weekend start on Saturday (2-3, 4.07 ERA). Sunday’s starter for UCF is to-be-announced. Texas will go with right-hander Max Grubbs (4-4, 3.70) ERA on Friday, lefty Ace Whitehead (4-0, 3.73 ERA) on Saturday, and the Preseason Big 12 Pitcher of the Year Lebarron Johnson Jr. (2-4, 5.82 ERA) on Sunday.
About Texas
The Longhorns make their first trip to John Euliano Park with a 30-19 overall record and currently tied for second in the Big 12 standings with a 15-9 league clip. Texas entered the national rankings this week and is currently ranked No. 18 by Perfect Game and No. 25 by Baseball America. UT is also receiving votes for both the ESPN/USA Today Coaches and NCBWA polls. Texas is 8-2 over its last 10 games with series wins over No. 14 Oklahoma State, No. 18 Oklahoma, and the preseason favorite TCU Horned Frogs during the stretch. The Longhorns were picked to finish second in their final season of competition in the Big 12 after going 42-22 overall and earning a share of the conference title last year with a 15-9 league record. Texas has won six national titles in its history and made the most trips to the Men’s College World Series of any team with 38.
Jared Thomas, who was named to the Big 12 All-Freshmen team a season ago, leads the Longhorns with a .356 batting average and 51 runs scored. He also has 14 homers, 13 doubles, three triples, and 39 RBIs. Max Belyeu is right behind him with a .352 clip and team-leading tallies of 17 home runs, 45 RBIs, and a 1.200 OPS. Friday’s scheduled starter Grubbs paces UT’s starting rotation with a 3.70 ERA, while Saturday’s starter Whitehead holds a perfect 4-0 record, and Sunday’s starter Johnson Jr. leads in strikeouts with 61 in 55.2 innings. From the bullpen, Gage Boehm holds a 4-2 record, 2.65 ERA, a team-best five saves, and 42 strikeouts over 37.1 innings.
Texas is coached by David Pierce who is in his eighth season of leading the way in Austin. A two-time Big 12 Conference Coach of the Year (2018 & 2021), Pierce will enter Friday with a 291-157 record at Texas and a 488-266 career record over 13 seasons (2012-14 at Sam Houston and 2015-16 at Tulane).
All-Time Series vs. Texas
Friday will mark the first all-time meeting on the diamond between the Knights and Longhorns.
Knights 13-2 vs. Sunshine State Foes, 11-1 in Midweek Action
UCF is off to an impressive 13-2 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 (two), and FGCU and taking two of three at home from South Florida. The Knights are also 11-1 in midweek contests after opening the year 7-0. In midweek games, UCF has outscored its opponents with an impressive tally of 93 to 39.
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 32nd-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
The Knights will welcome Bethune-Cookman to town for their final home game of the 2024 season on Tuesday, May 14. Following Tuesday’s contest, UCF will then return to the Lone Star State to face Baylor May 16-18 in Waco. The series will mark the final regular-season action for both the Knights and Bears.