ORLANDO – Fresh off a conference series victory at BYU, the UCF baseball team returns to the Sunshine State for a Tuesday midweek at Stetson.
The in-state battle is set for a 6:30 p.m. start at Stetson’s Melching Field at Conrad Park in DeLand. The game will be streamed live on ESPN+ and will also be on the radio at FM 96.9 The Game. Live stats can be followed by visiting GoHatters.com.
The Knights will enter Tuesday’s ballgame with a 15-4 overall record and a 2-1 Big 12 Conference clip after taking two of three last weekend in a cold and snowy Provo, Utah. UCF is also currently receiving votes for both the USA TODAY Coaches and NCBWA polls this week. The Black and Gold have also won nine of their last 10 contests.
UCF went 3-1 last week with a 14-4 victory over fellow Sunshine State foe Miami before heading to the state of Utah and taking two of three from BYU in the opening Big 12 series. After topping the Hurricanes by 10 runs for their seventh win in a row, the Knights found themselves in a tightly contested conference series in cold conditions at BYU, as all three games were decided by just one run.
The Black and Gold would go on win their eighth straight victory with a 9-8 victory in game one against the Cougars. DeAmez Ross and Edian Espinal hit out back-to-back home run in the eighth inning to tie the game and Braden Calise drove in what proved to be the winning run later the inning. Senior right-hander Alex Galvan then came on in relief for UCF and tossed a scoreless eighth and ninth frame to earn his first collegiate save.
The eight-game winning streak marked the longest in the Rich Wallace era and UCF’s longest since 2018 when it won 13 straight.
BYU responded by pulling out an 8-7 extra-inning contest on Friday to even the series. Trailing 6-2 entering the ninth inning, the Black and Gold would rally for five runs to take a 7-6 lead. Andrew Sundean delivered a game-tying two-run single, and Lex Boedicker followed by giving the Knights the late lead with an RBI single. The Cougars responded, however, with a solo homer in the bottom of the ninth tie to it and won it in the bottom of the 10th on a walk-off RBI single from Luke Anderson to even the series.
Then following a two-hour snow delay and with temperatures in the mid-30s in Saturday’s rubber match, UCF managed to hold on to claim the series with a 7-6 victory. Edian Espinal homered early, and Dylan King added a go-ahead home run in the sixth and a two-run triple in the eighth to help the Knights build a 7-2 lead. BYU countered with four runs in the bottom of the ninth, but Black and Gold reliever Angelo Smith came on and shut the door on the Cougars with a strikeout and a game-ending double play with the tying and winning runs on the base paths to record his first save as a Knight.
Espinal led the Knights in the series with a .538 average, two homers, a double, five runs scored and five runs batted in. Andrew Williamson also had a big series by hitting .455 with two doubles, five runs scored and an RBI. Sundean also batted .444 in the series while King had a trio of extra-base hits and scored three runs and drove in three more. Galvan had a stellar performance from the bullpen by tossing a trio of scoreless innings of relief and earning his first save.
For the season, the second baseman Espinal leads the Knights with a whopping .527 batting average. He also tops the team in on-base percentage (.639), slugging (.818) and runs scored (26). Williamson is next by hitting .414 with nine doubles, five homers, 26 RBIs, 25 runs scored and 22 walks. Boedicker tops the team in RBIs with 28 and is tied for the team lead in home runs with five. From the mound, Wiley Hartley leads the starting rotation with a 3-0 record, 2.88 ERA and 22 strikeouts in 25.0 innings. Southpaw Dominic Castellano, who went 3-0 on the mound in relief last week, tops the team in both wins and strikeouts with a 5-0 record and 28 punch outs in 17.0 innings.
LEADING THE NATION
Junior second baseman Edian Espinal is currently leading the nation in both batting average and on-base percentage with respective tallies of .527 and .639. Over 55 at-bats on the year, Espinal has 29 hits with four homers, four doubles and 10 walks. He has red-hot since his pinch-hit walk-off hit in game one against Bryant and currently leads the team in multi-hit games with 11. He’ll also enter Tuesday on a 10-game hitting streak and a 17-game reached base safely streak.
HITTING ON ALL CYLINDERS
As a team, the Knights currently hold the second-best team batting average in the nation with a .356 batting average. UCF currently has nine players with 10 or more at-bats hitting above .300 and three batting over .400 in Espinal (.527), Williamson (.414) and Aris Rivera (.417). Richmond of the Atlantic 10 is the only team to have a better batting average, as they’ll enter the week with a .359 clip.
SCHEDULED STARTING PITCHERS FOR TUESDAY
Redshirt junior right-hander Grant Siegel will make his second straight midweek start and his fifth start overall on the season. Siegel will enter with a 1-1 record and a 4.20 ERA. He holds 10 strikeouts in 15.0 innings of work and recorded his win on opening weekend over Siena. Stetson’s starter for Tuesday’s game is yet-to-be-announced.
ABOUT STETSON
The Hatters will enter Tuesday with an 11-10 overall record and a 2-1 record in ASUN play after taking two of three at home from Florida Gulf Coast. Stetson too made the trip to Provo, Utah, recently and dropped three of four at BYU, March 5-8, before going 3-2 at home against USC Upstate and FGCU last week. The Hatters were picked to win the ASUN this year after winning both the regular season and tournament titles last year. Stetson, who went 41-22 overall and 20-10 in league play last year, had its 2024 season come to a close with a trip to the Tallahassee Regional, the same regional that UCF participated in a season ago.
The Hatters are led by Foster Apple at the plate, as he holds a .340 batting average. 2025 Preseason All-ASUN Team honoree Lorenzo Meola is next with a .333 clip, and team-leading tallies of four homers, four doubles, 22 runs scored and 15 RBIs. Jonathan Gonzalex tops Stetson’s starting rotation with a 3-1 record, a complete game, 2.59 ERA and 32 strikeouts in 31.1 innings, while Jake Gorelick leads the bullpen with a 2-0 record and 1.59 ERA in 11.1 innings.
Stetson is led by head coach Steve Trimper. Trimper is in his ninth season in DeLand and holds a 252-185 record at Stetson.
ALL-TIME SERIES VS. STETSON
Tuesday’s midweek will mark the first of two season meetings between UCF and Stetson and the 132nd all-time meeting. The Knights hold a 79-52 series advantage and have won five of the last six meetings, which includes a 5-2 victory in the Tallahassee Regional last June. UCF also holds a 33-26 advantage with games played in DeLand.
BEWARE OF THE BULLPEN
The Knights’ bullpen has been red hot to start the season. So far, the group of 15 pitchers have pitched a combined 88.1 innings, in which they have put together an ERA of 2.55, an 8-2 record and allowed only 68 hits and 25 earned runs while striking out 117 batters. Four pitchers—Kris Sosnowski, Alex Galvan, Mateo Gray and Matt Sauser—currently have an ERA of zero. Dominic Castellano leads the way with a 5-0 record, 2.65 ERA and has recorded a team-leading 28 strikeouts in 17.0 innings.
HOW MANY RUNS?
The Knights scored an impressive total of 103 runs during their recent eight-game winning streak. UCF also outscored it opponents by a whopping 103-22 during the eight games for a plus-81 run differential. The Black and Gold also scored double in six of the eight games and eight or more in all eight. During the stretch, UCF topped rival South Florida twice (12-1 and 12-2), No. 6 Florida (13-3), Miami (14-4), Monmouth three times (17-1, 18-3, 8-0) and BYU (9-8). UCF also outhit the opposition 122-54 during the eight-game streak.
SUNSHINE STATE SUCCESS
UCF defeated the Miami Hurricanes by a score of 14-4 for its fourth win on the year over in-state foes. This was the second year in a row the Knights under head coach Rich Wallace have defeated Miami.
The win continued the trend of the Knights having success against in-state opponents in the Wallace era. The win moved Wallace to 18-6 in games against teams from the state of Florida. Wallace’s 2024 squad went 14-4, which included beating the then-fourth ranked Florida in Gainesville, a series win over USF, and a win over Stetson in the Tallahassee Regional.
This season UCF is 4-2 against Florida teams. Those wins include two wins to earn the series win over USF and 10-run victories over both Florida and Miami.
ON DECK
Following Tuesday’s midweek, UCF will welcome the Houston Cougars to John Euliano Park for its first home Big 12 series this weekend. Friday and Saturday’s games are set for 6 p.m., while Sunday’s finale is set for a 1 p.m. start.
Back in the Sunshine State to face Stetson on Tuesday 🌞 pic.twitter.com/2x1ZDDrWzg
— UCF Baseball (@UCF_Baseball) March 17, 2025