ORLANDO – The UCF baseball team will close an eight-game hometand with a midweek contest against Florida Atlantic on Tuesday at John Euliano Park.
Tuesday’s ballgame will begin at 6 p.m. and will be broadcast live on ESPN+. Live stats will also be available by visiting UCF.Statbroadcast.com.
The Knights will enter the contest with a 6-1 record and currently receiving votes for the most recent NCBWA and USA TODAY Top 25 Coaches Poll. After sweeping Siena on Opening Weekend, UCF then won its first three games of a four-game-in-four-day stretch last week. The Knights first topped SEC foe Missouri on Thursday by a score of 7-1, before coming from behind to beat Bryant in games one and two of the weekend series to clinch its second straight series victory. The Bulldogs then managed to salvage a game on the weekend by pulling out a 5-3 decision in Sunday’s finale.
After outhitting Mizzou 9-4 en route to topping the Tigers on Thursday, UCF then found itself in a battle with Bryant in the series opener on Friday. Entering the bottom of the ninth trailing by a pair of runs, the Black and Gold quickly loaded the bases with nobody out in the frame. Andrew Sundean worked a bases-loaded walk to make it 6-5, and Edian Espinal followed by delivering a two-run walk-off single to left field to propel the Knights to a 7-6 victory.
Behind solid pitching from Wiley Hartley and Kris Sosnowski, the Black and Gold would then go on to claim game two as well. With the ballgame all knotted up at 2 in the eighth inning, UCF managed to piece together a two-out rally to take a late lead. Espinal and Kendrey Maduro both reached on consecutive Bryant errors, and senior Matt Prevesk made the Bulldogs pay by following with a two-run double to left to give the Knights a late 4-2 advantage.
Sosnowski then came out for his fourth inning of relief and pitched a three-up-three-down ninth to seal the victory. Sosnowski and Hartley combined to strike out 12 batters in the contest, as Hartley fanned five and Sosnowski struck out a career-high seven batters over a career-long 4.0 innings to earn his first win of the season (1-0).
The Bulldogs, who won the America East Conference last season on its way to taking part at the 2024 NCAA Raleigh Regional, then responded on Sunday by claiming the series finale by a score of 5-3.
In the four games last week, Espinal led the offense with a .444 average and two runs batted in. Sundean was next with a .333 clip, a homer and a team-best six RBIs, while Andrew Williamson also batted .333 with a homer, two doubles and three RBIs.
On the season, Braden Calise leads UCF with a stellar .458 batting average and 11 runs scored. He also paces the team in walks with nine and is second in stolen bases with three. DeAmez Ross, Chase Krewson, Prevesk and Sundean all follow with identical .333 batting averages. On the mound, starter Wiley Hartley tops the team with a 1-0 record, a 0.90 ERA and 10 strikeouts in 10.0 innings pitched. Sosnowski leads the way from the bullpen with a 1-0 record, 0.00 ERA and eight strikeouts in 5.2 innings.
Tuesday’s contest will mark the first Space Game of the season for UCF, as the team will don its Space U blue jerseys.
SCHEDULED STARTING PITCHERS FOR TUESDAY
Right-hander Matt Sauser is scheduled to make his second start of the season on the mound for UCF. Sauser was strong in his first start for the Knights against Mizzou. The right-hander went 4.0 innings, struck out four and prevented the Tigers from scoring during his outing en route to earning the victory (1-0). Left-hander Zach Kilby will receive the starting nod for FAU. Kilby enters the matchup with a 1.29 ERA, the second best amongst Florida Atlantic’s starters, and seven strikeouts in 7.0 innings pitched.
ABOUT FLORIDA ATLANTIC
FAU enters the midweek matchup with a 6-1 record on the season. Similar to the Knights, the Owls opened their season 6-0 before dropping the last game of the weekend series with a 5-3 extra-inning setback to UConn on Sunday. In seven games, Florida Atlantic has put up a +38 run differential against opponents, mainly thanks to a 19-1 victory over Delaware and a 25-17 win over the Huskies.
The Owls finished 2024 with a 28-29 overall record, recording a 12-15 record in the AAC to finish sixth in their conference. FAU is projected to finish sixth in the AAC once again according to the 2025 American Athletic Conference Baseball Preseason Poll. Florida Atlantic is led by head coach John McCormack, who is in his 17th year as the program’s head coach.
Senior standout Jake Millan is currently tied for first for the Owls in RBIs with 10 and also posts a .333 batting average and 1.128 OPS. Millan received AAC Player of the Week honors on Feb. 17 after hitting 7-for-12 in the opening series against Delaware with a home run, four doubles, seven RBIs, and seven runs scored. Catcher Ayden Garcia comes into the matchup with 10 RBIs as well. Garcia is currently batting .313 with two home runs and five runs scored. Freshman James Littman leads the Owls on the mound, as he has yet to allow a run and has punched out six in 8.1 innings pitched.
ALL-TIME SERIES VS. FAU
The Knights currently hold the lead in the all-time series against FAU with a 49-41 overall record. UCF has won the last two meetings, as it claimed both contests in 2024. The Black and Gold first defeated FAU in Boca Raton by a score of 11-6 before topping the Owls at John Euliano Park on March 19, 3-2. UCF will also enter the game with a 24-24 all-time record with games played in Orlando.
BEWARE OF THE BULLPEN
The Knights’ bullpen has been red hot to start the season. So far, the group of 11 pitchers have tossed a combined 32 innings, in which they have put together a 1.41 ERA, a 3-0 record, and have allowed just five earned runs on 18 hits while striking out 44 batters. Seven pitchers currently have an ERA of zero and three of them—Angelo Smith, Carter Stanford and James Lordi—have yet to allow a single hit.
BRADEN’S BIG START
In the first few games of the season, one of UCF’s standouts has been Braden Calise. Known on the team as B-Dot, he currently leads the team in OPS (1.129), walks (nine), hits (11) and on-base percentage (.629). He also has a batting average of .458, the second highest on the team, and four RBIs.
Nationally, he is also highly ranked. He is currently in the top 100 in several statistical categories including base on balls (31), on-base percentage (36), base on balls per game (43), runs (43) and runs per game (53).
NO BETTER WAY TO GET YOUR FIRST
UCF’s Feb. 21 game against Bryant would result in a 7-6 win for the Knights thanks to the heroics of Edian Espinal. After being brought into the game in the bottom of the ninth as a pinch hitter and with his team down a run, Espinal made the most of his lone at-bat by blasting the ball into left field for a walk-off two-run single to give the Black and Gold the win. This hit gave Espinal, who transferred to UCF from the junior college Chipola before the season, his first RBIs as a Knight as well as at the NCAA Division I level.
ON DECK FOR UCF
Following Tuesday’s ballgame, UCF will head to Tampa to face a familiar foe for a three-game series at South Florida. Friday’s game is set for 6:30 p.m. while Saturday’s is scheduled for 2 p.m. and Sunday’s at 1 p.m. The Knights will then return home after the weekend for a midweek contest against No. 6 Florida on Tuesday, March 4.
Takin’ a Trip to Space 🚀 pic.twitter.com/oNK7A3ojKs
— UCF Baseball (@UCF_Baseball) February 24, 2025