ORLANDO – Fresh off a 3-0 shutout victory at Stetson on Tuesday night, the UCF baseball team returns home for its first Big 12 Conference home series of the season against Houston this weekend at John Euliano Park.
The three-game series will run Friday to Sunday. Friday and Saturday’s contests are set for 6 p.m., while Sunday’s finale is scheduled for a 1 p.m. start. All three games will be streamed live on ESPN+ and Saturday and Sunday’s will also be on the radio at FM 96.9 The Game. Live stats can be followed for each contest by visiting UCF.Statbroadcast.com.
The Knights will enter Friday’s home Big 12 opener having won 10 of their last 11 games after shutting out in-state foe Stetson in DeLand Tuesday on Tuesday. Prior to Tuesday’s game, UCF took two of three from BYU last weekend in a cold and snowy Provo, Utah. The Black and Gold are currently receiving votes for both the USA TODAY Coaches and NCBWA Top 25 polls this week.
UCF opened the stretch by posting an eight-game winning streak—the longest in the Rich Wallace era. The Knights topped rival South Florida twice, Monmouth three times, No. 6 Florida, Miami and BYU over the eight games, and after falling by a run at Brigham Young, responded by taking the series in Provo and followed that up with a midweek victory at Stetson on Tuesday.
Right-hander Grant Siegel helped lead the Knights to their third shutout of the season with Tuesday’s 3-0 victory at Stetson. Siegel tossed five scoreless innings in which he allowed just one hit, no runs, struck out five and walked just one. After running into a bit of trouble in the first inning, he retired the final 13 batters he faced and tied a season-high in innings pitched with 5.0 and set a new season-high in strikeouts with five.
Kevin Schoneboom then pitched a scoreless sixth inning for the Knights and Russell Sandefer finished things off by pitching the final three innings to earn his first save in a UCF uniform. Sandefer gave up just one hit and no runs over a season-long 3.0 innings while striking out two to earn the save.
In all, the trio of UCF hurlers limited Stetson to just four hits on the night, as the staff combined for a four-hit shutout.
With the game scoreless in the fifth inning, Kendrey Maduro singled and Dylan King executed a hustle double on a hit and run to put two runners in scoring position. Chase Krewson later drove in the first run of the game with an RBI groundout to the right side to make it 1-0 Knights.
Following back-to-back one-out singles in the top of the seventh from Antonio Jimenez and Krewson, Edian Espinal—the nation’s hottest hitter—delivered a two-out two-run single through the right side of the infield to extend UCF’s lead to 3-0.
DeAmez Ross led the Black and Gold at the plate in the game by going 2-for-5 with a double, while Espinal drove in a game-high two runs on a 1-for-4 performance.
For the season, junior second baseman Espinal leads the Knights with a stellar .508 batting average. He also tops the team in on-base percentage (.623) and runs scored with 26, and is second in hits (30) and slugging (.781). Andrew Williamson is next with a .411 average and team-leading tallies of 10 doubles and five homers. Lex Boedicker leads in runs batted in with 28 and is tied for the team lead in home runs with five. From the mound, senior RHP Wiley Hartley fronts the rotation with a 3-0 record, 2.88 ERA and 22 strikeouts in 25.0 innings. Left-hander Dominic Castellano, who went 3-0 in relief work last week, tops the team in wins and strikeouts with a 5-0 record and 28 punch outs in 17.0 innings. Senior Alex Galvan has also pitched well from the bullpen with a perfect 0.00 ERA, one save, and 19 strikeouts over 11.0 innings of work.
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 .508 and .623. Over 59 at-bats on the year, Espinal has 30 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 an 11-game hitting streak and a 18-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 .351 clip. UCF currently has nine players with 10 or more at-bats hitting above .300 and three batting over .400 in Espinal (.508), Williamson (.411) and Aris Rivera (.417). Richmond of the Atlantic 10 is the only team to have a better batting average, as they’ll enter the weekend with a .359 average.
SCHEDULED STARTING PITCHERS FOR THE WEEKEND
Redshirt junior RHP Kris Sosnowski will make his third career start for UCF on Friday night. The former reliever will enter play with a 2-0 record and a 2.81 ERA. Senior righty Wiley Hartley (3-0, 2.88 ERA) will get the nod on Saturday and senior right-hander Dom Stagliano is scheduled to start on Sunday (1-1, 4.58 ERA). They will face UH right-hander Paul Schmitz (3-2, 3.76 ERA) on Friday, RHP Richie Roman (0-2, 6.23 ERA) on Saturday and Sunday’s starter is to-be-announced.
ABOUT HOUSTON
The Cougars will come to Orlando with an 11-9 overall record and an 0-3 start to Big 12 Conference play after getting swept by Texas Tech last weekend at home. Houston has also dropped its last two midweek games to Sam Houston as it has dropped five straight. The Cougars finished the year with a 26-28 overall record last year and in 12th in the league standings with a 7-21 conference mark. Houston was picked to finish 11th in the Big 12 this season.
UH is led by Connor McGinnis offensively, as he holds a .394 average and a team-best 11 doubles, and 28 runs scored. Xavier Perez is next with a .345 clip, 13 extra-base hits and 23 RBIs, while Cade Climie leads the way in home runs with six and Tre Broussard tops the team in stolen bases with 15 (15-for-15). Paul Schmitz is the team’s top starting pitcher with a 3-2 record and a 3.76 ERA, while reliever Antoine Jean fronts the squad in strikeouts with 36 in 22.0 innings of work. Roman Richie holds a league-leading six saves.
Houston is coached by Todd Whitting who is in his 15th year at the helm of the Cougars.
ALL-TIME HISTORY VS. HOUSTON
Friday’s opener will mark the 69th all-time meeting between the Knights and Cougars. The series is all tied up at 34-34, but UCF holds a 17-12 advantage with contests played in Orlando. The Black and Gold swept a rain-shortened two-game series last year in Houston, 4-1 and 6-4, and have won three of the last four meetings.
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 92.1 innings, in which they have put together an ERA of 2.44, an 8-2 record and allowed only 71 hits and 25 earned runs while striking out 119 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 its 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 2024 NCAA Tallahassee Regional foe Stetson 3-0 for its fifth win on the year over Sunshine State foes.
The win continued the trend of the Knights having success against in-state opponents in the Wallace era. The win moved Wallace to 19-6 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 5-2 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
The Knights will hit the road next week for four games away from home. The Black and Gold will first open the week with a Tuesday midweek at in-state foe Jacksonville before heading to Cincinnati to face the Cincinnati Bearcats for a three-game Big 12 series next weekend.
First Big 12 Home Series 🔜 pic.twitter.com/G7AprFy2vT
— UCF Baseball (@UCF_Baseball) March 20, 2025