ORLANDO – The UCF baseball team will continue a four-game road stretch with a Big 12 Conference series at Cincinnati this weekend.
The three-game series will run Friday to Sunday at UC Baseball Stadium. Friday’s opener is set for a 6 p.m. start, while Saturday’s contest is scheduled for 3 p.m. and Sunday’s finale has been moved up to a noon start. All three games will be broadcast live on ESPN+. Friday and Sunday’s games will also air live on FM 96.9 The Game, while Saturday’s can be found on 810 AM Orlando. Live stats can be followed for all three games via UCF.StatBroadcast.com.
The Knights will enter the weekend with a 17-7 overall record and a 3-3 conference mark. UCF is currently receiving votes for this week’s NCBWA Top 25 Poll and has won 11 of its last 15 contests.
After opening Big 12 play by taking two of three at BYU a couple of weeks ago, the Black and Gold then dropped two of three at home to Houston last weekend. The Knights also fell in midweek action at Jacksonville on Tuesday night by a score of 3-2.
Last weekend against the Cougars, UCF dropped the opener 7-5 but responded to pull out Saturday’s contest by a score of 7-1. Houston then went on to take the series, however, by breaking a 4-4 tie in the seventh inning with a trio of late runs to claim the finale 7-4.
Four UCF pitchers combined to limit the Cougars to just one run in last Saturday’s ballgame and the Knights put the game away with five runs in the eighth inning. Holding to a 2-1 advantage for the majority of the game, Dylan King gave the Black and Gold a little breathing room by driving in a run in the last of the eighth via an RBI groundout. DeAmez Ross followed with a two-run single with two outs and Edian Espinal capped the scoring with a two-run double. UH then looked to make things interesting by loading the bases with two away in the ninth, but Kevin Schoneboom came on and struck out the first batter he faced on three pitches to seal the victory.
Wiley Hartley, Russell Sandefer, Alex Galvan and Schoneboom limited the Cougars to just one run on five hits in the ballgame.
The Knights again pitched well at Jacksonville on Tuesday night, but JU managed to score a trio of unearned runs to claim the tightly contested in-state game by a score of 3-2.
Six UCF pitchers limited the Dolphins to just four hits on the night, but four UCF errors proved to be costly, as JU scored three unearned runs early in the game and managed to hold on for the victory.
The Black and Gold took an early 1-0 lead in the first via a double steal, but Jacksonville capitalized on a trio of UCF errors with two outs in the second to take a 3-1 lead. The Knights later got a run back in the fifth to make it 3-2. The Black and Gold loaded the bases that inning on a trio of consecutive singles from Matt Prevesk, Antonio Jimenez and Kendrey Maduro. Two batters later, Espinal made it 3-2 with a sacrifice fly to left field to bring in Prevesk.
The Knights got two men on the base paths in both the eighth and ninth innings, but JU managed to pitch out of each jam to pull out the midweek game.
Grant Siegel, Angelo Smith, Camden Wicker, James Lordi, Carter Stanford and Spencer Bauer limited the Dolphins to just four hits and three unearned runs in the game. The group combined to strikeout seven and allowed just one hit past the third inning. Wicker led the group by tossing a season-high 2.2 innings of scoreless relief in the middle innings. Offensively, Maduro led the Knights by going 2-for-3 with a double and a walk, while Ross went 1-for-4 with a run scored and Espinal drove in a run.
On the season, Espinal leads UCF with a .461 batting average, .697 slugging and .567 on-base percentage. He is also tops in runs scored with 28 and tied for the team lead in stolen bases with five. Andrew Williamson is next with a next with a .371 clip and team-leading tallies of 11 doubles, five homers and 28 RBIs, while Ross is right behind him with a .363 batting average and a team-high 37 hits. Senior right-hander Hartley paces the starting rotation with a 4-0 record, 2.70 ERA and 30.0 innings pitched, while Alex Galvan is leading the way from the bullpen with a 0.00 ERA over 13.2 innings pitched and is tied for the team lead in saves with one. Dominic Castellano is tops on the team in strikeouts with 28 over 17.2 innings.
SCHEDULED STARTING PITCHERS FOR THE SERIES
Redshirt senior RHP Wiley Hartley will move up in the rotation and start for the Knights on Friday night this week. Hartley will enter with a 4-0 record and a 2.70 ERA. Friday will mark his seventh start of the year. RHP Dom Stagliano will then take the ball on Saturday (1-1, 4.74 ERA) and Sunday’s starter for UCF is to be announced. Righty Nathan Taylor (3-0, 2.35 ERA) will get the ball for UC on Friday, while lefties Kellen O’Connor (0-0, 4.50 ERA) and Adam Mrakitsch (0-2, 6.52) will start in games two and three respectively.
HITTING ON ALL CYLINDERS
As a team, the Knights currently hold the eighth-best team batting average in the nation with a .332 average. UCF currently has seven players with 10 or more at-bats hitting above .300 and two batting over .370 in Espinal (.461), Williamson (.371).
ONE OF THE NATION’S TOP HITTERS
Junior second baseman Edian Espinal is currently ranked eighth nationally in on-base percentage with a .567 clip and ninth in hitting with a .461 batting average. Over 76 at-bats on the year, Espinal has 35 hits with four homers, six doubles and 12 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 13. He’ll also enter Tuesday on a 22-game reached base safely streak.
THROWING SOME HEAT
The Knights’ pitching staff has started the season hot. The team’s performance on the mound has made it one of the top statistical performing staffs in the country. UCF currently has the sixth-best ERA in the country with a 3.14 average and WHIP with a 1.17 average. Nationally, the staff is also 12th in Strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.04) and has the 13th most shutouts (3).
ABOUT CINCINNATI
The Bearcats currently hold a 13-11 overall record and a 1-5 record in the Big 12. They are coming off a 12-2 Tuesday night victory over No. 18 Louisville after getting swept at Arizona and dropping two of three at home to BYU last weekend.
Cincinnati finished fifth in the Big 12 in 2024, posting a 17-13 conference record and a 32-25 overall record. The Bearcats were tabbed to finish 10th in the conference in 2025 according to the 2025 Big 12 Baseball Preseason Poll. UC is led by head coach Jordan Bischel, who is in his second year as head coach of the program.
Outfielder Landyn Vidourek leads the Bearcats in RBIs (23) and home runs (6), and currently posts a 1.098 OPS. Preseason All-Big 12 honoree Kerrington Cross has the highest batting average on the team with a .425 average which is complemented by a .526 OBP. Fellow Preseason All-Big 12 member RHP Nathan Taylor has punched out 42 batters in 30.2 innings and has collected a 2.35 ERA and a 3-0 record along the way. Freshman southpaw Hudson Johnson follows with 21 strikeouts and a 3.48 ERA in 20.2 innings pitched.
ALL-TIME SERIES HISTORY VS. CINCINNATI
UCF currently leads the all-time series against Cincinnati 21-15. The Knights have taken five of the last seven contests, including a 6-5 extra-inning win in their last meeting at the 2024 Phillips 66 Big 12 Baseball Championship. Going into the 11th, the game was deadlocked at 5-5, but Danny Neri belted out a Big 12 Tournament record with his third home run of the game to give the Black and Gold the lead. Kyle Kramer secured the win with a perfect bottom of the 11th. Neri is currently UCF baseball’s Director of Position Player Development
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 111.1 innings, in which they have put together an ERA of 2.59, an 8-4 record and allowed only 84 hits and 32 earned runs while striking out 134 batters. Four pitchers—Kris Sosnowski, Alex Galvan, Mateo Gray and Matt Sauser—currently have an ERA of zero. Dominic Castellano leads the way in wins (5-1) and strikeouts (28) while Galvan, Russell Sandefer and Angelo Smith are tied atop the team in saves as they each have one.
GETTIN’ WINS
Senior pitcher Dominic Castellano has been one of the standouts of the Knights’ pitching staff this season. He currently leads the team in wins with five, which is good enough for the sixth-most wins by a pitcher in the country. He also leads the team in strikeouts (28) and appearances (10).
ON DECK
Following this weekend’s action, the Black and Gold will return home for four games next week. UCF will first host Sunshine State foe Stetson on Tuesday before hosting Kansas for a three-game league series next weekend.
Headin’ to Cincinnati pic.twitter.com/CKu8UED7sI
— UCF Baseball (@UCF_Baseball) March 27, 2025