ORLANDO – The UCF baseball team got back in the win column after shutting out Stetson 2-0 on Tuesday night at John Euliano Park to earn its second win over the Hatters on the season.
The game was paused due to lightning prior to the start of the sixth inning and eventually called in five innings after an hour and forty-minute delay. With the win, the Black and Gold snapped Stetson’s seven game winning streak. UCF moved to 18-10 with the victory while Stetson dropped to 17-13 with the setback.
The star of the show for UCF was starting pitcher Matt Sauser. In his first appearance since March 8 against Monmouth, he would pitch the full five innings, in which he gave up only a single hit while striking out two batters. Sauser retired the first 14 batters he faced. He made quick work of every batter he faced. Not only did he not walk a batter, but he also didn’t throw a three-ball count to any batter on the evening. Stetson only had a total of two batters reach base off him in the game.
“He was absolutely outstanding,” head coach Rich Wallace said. “Obviously you see the no runs and the one hit. He didn’t get to a three-ball count all night. His fastball was in the zone the whole time. Also had some really good sliders and was competitive. He was exactly what we needed coming off the weekend. I couldn’t be more proud of the way he performed.”
Sauser’s performance was the key for the Black and Gold’s win as he was able to quickly sit down batters, which helped the Knights get through five innings—the minimum number of innings needed to be an official game—before the lightning came.
“It felt good,” Sauser said. “The biggest thing DT (Drew Thomas) and Wally (Coach Wallace) wanted was just attack first, pitch strikes and let the defense work.”
Light Work @SauserMatt 💪
— UCF Baseball (@UCF_Baseball) April 2, 2025
5.0 IP 1 H, 0 R, 2 K, 17 BF pic.twitter.com/1CBXPizq0v
The Knights’ two runs came from two RBI doubles, one hit by Lex Boedicker in the bottom of the first and one from Edian Espinal in the bottom of the fifth. Espinal’s fifth-inning RBI double followed a two-out double from Antonio Jimenez.
B1 | A Lex-tra base hit gets us on the board pic.twitter.com/srEBoy7uu3
— UCF Baseball (@UCF_Baseball) April 1, 2025
Some offensive streaks were also extended in this game. Espinal and Andrew Williamson both extended their on-base streaks to 26 games. Espinal did it by drawing a walk in the first and Williamson did it with a single that same inning. His hit would setup Boedicker’s RBI double that inning.
Sauser earned the win on the mound to move to 2-0 on the year. Stetson’s Ethan Phillips was tagged with the loss to drop to 0-2.
The win snapped a five-game losing streak for the Black and Gold.
The Knights will return to action starting on Friday when they once again take the field at John Euliano Park to take on No. 23 Kansas in a three-game series. After that, the Black and Gold will play a midweek game in Jacksonville against North Florida next Tuesday before traveling to Manhattan, Kansas, to face No. 22 Kansas State next weekend.