Baseball Shuts Out Monmouth, 8-0, to Record Series SweepBaseball Shuts Out Monmouth, 8-0, to Record Series Sweep

Baseball Shuts Out Monmouth, 8-0, to Record Series Sweep

by James Warnick
Box Score

ORLANDO – Dom Stagliano pitched six scoreless innings en route to leading UCF baseball to an 8-0 shutout victory over Monmouth on Sunday afternoon to secure the series sweep.

UCF extends its winning streak to six in a row with the result and has outscored its opponent by an impressive tally of 80-10 during the stretch. The shutout marked the Black and Gold’s second of the season, as a trio of pitchers combined to limit the Hawks (4-10) to just five hits on the afternoon.  

“Dom was outstanding. He commanded the fastball. There was life on the fastball, the cutter and slider were both in play, and the change-up was really good. That looked like the Dom Stagliano,” head UCF coach Rich Wallace said. “It was a pretty complete ballgame. I thought we missed some opportunities early, but we pitched and defended and got a chance there at the last hour to kind of break it open.”

UCF loaded the bases in the first inning and pushed across the first run of the game with a sacrifice fly from Lex Boedicker. The Knights then added two more runs in the second to make it 3-0. With the bases full again in the second, Edian Espinal was hit by the pitch to bring home a run and Andrew Williamson followed with sac fly to deep right to make it a three-run advantage.

With Stagliano putting up zeros from the mound, the offense made it 4-0 with a run in the bottom of the sixth. Antonio Jimenez reached on a bunt single, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt from Dylan King and later stole third. He then scored on a two-out RBI single from Espinal.

After a pair of scoreless frames from reliever Russell Sandefer, King then blasted out a two-run home run to deep right field for his second round tripper of the weekend. His home run was clocked at 104 MPH off the bat and marked the eighth straight game that UCF has homered in. Following a walk from DeAmez Ross, Epinal drove in his third run of the game with an RBI double to right. Williamson then capped the scoring with a sacrifice fly to center to make it 8-0.

Alex Galvan entered on the mound for the Knights in the top of the ninth and retired three of the four batters he faced to secure the shutout.

Stagliano earned his first win of the season to move to 1-1 after allowing just four hits and no runs while striking out four and not issuing a walk over 6.0 innings. The 6.0 innings marked a season high for Stagliano, as the senior faced the minimum in three of his six frames on the afternoon and had two stretches in which he retired eight consecutive batters. Sandefer then followed with a pair of scoreless innings in which he struck out the side in order in the seventh and allowed just one hit while fanning four in all. Galvan then tossed a scoreless ninth and added UCF’s ninth strikeout of the ballgame.

Espinal led the Black and Gold offensively by going 2-for-3 with a double, a game-high three RBIs and a run scored. Jimenez and King each added two hits apiece and King finished by going 2-for-2 with two runs scored, two runs batted in, a walk and a home run.

With 10 hits as a team, the Knights have now recorded double figures in hits in 12 of their 15 games on the season.

The six-game winning streak matches UCF’s high for the season, as it previously won its first six games of the 2025 campaign. During the Black and Gold’s current six-game streak, it has defeated rival South Florida twice (12-1 and 12-2), No. 6 Florida (13-3), and Monmouth three times (17-1, 18-3, 8-0).

The Black and Gold will now close a five-match homestand against the Miami Hurricanes on Tuesday at 6 p.m. at John Euliano Park. Following Tuesday's midweek, the Knight will head to Provo, Utah, to open Big 12 Conference play with a three-game series at BYU. The series will run Thursday to Saturday at BYU’s Miller Park and will mark UCF’s inaugural trip to the Beehive State.