Baseball Falls to Baylor on Senior Knight, 5-4Baseball Falls to Baylor on Senior Knight, 5-4

Baseball Falls to Baylor on Senior Knight, 5-4

by James Warnick
Box Score

ORLANDO – Trailing 5-3 late in the game, UCF rallied for a run in the bottom of the eighth but couldn’t overcome the deficit, as Baylor held on to claim game two by a score of 5-4 on Friday night at John Euliano Park.

With the setback and a BYU win on the evening, UCF has been eliminated from qualifying for next week’s 2025 Phillips 66 Big 12 Baseball Championship. At 28-26 overall and 8-21 in league play, the Knights will enter Saturday’s regular season finale in a tie for 13th place in the conference standings. Baylor, who clinched the series on the night, improved to 33-20 overall and 13-16 in league play with the win.

The contest marked Senior Knight for UCF, as 10 Black and Gold seniors were honored prior to first pitch in Spencer Bauer (RHP), Lex Boedicker (1B), Ian Brown (RHP), Dominic Castellano (LHP), Carsten Finnvold (LHP), Alex Galvan (RHP), Wiley Hartley (RHP), Matt Prevesk (OF), Dom Stagliano (RHP) and Andrew Sundean. A pair of graduating student managers were also honored before the game in Brandon Burgess and Declan McDermott.

“This is a special group. You can go down the list, and these are special young men,” head coach Rich Wallace said. “I think they bought in to what UCF means—not only to myself but to this program—and I can tell that wearing UCF on their chest truly means a lot to them.”

Scoreless in the bottom of the second inning, Antonio Jimenez gave the Knights a 1-0 lead by rocketing out a solo home run to left field. Jimenez’s round tripper marked his 10th of the season and was clocked at an impressive 115 MPH off the bat.

Andrew Williamson then made it 2-0 by pulling out a deep solo homer to right field in the third. Williamson’s home run marked his team-leading 13th of the season and traveled 430 feet as it cleared the home bullpen.

With Russell Sandfer putting up zeros on the scoreboard, Dylan King and Lex Boedicker produced back-to-back singles with two outs in the fourth. King came in to score on a BU throwing error to make it 3-0.

The Bears then managed to get something going in the top of the sixth with an RBI double from Wesley Jordan and a two-run homer from Pearson Riebock to tie the ballgame. With runners on the corners and one out, the Bears took the lead as JJ Kennett dropped down a squeeze bunt to bring in the go-ahead run and take a 4-3 lead.

After a scoreless seventh inning, BU loaded the bases in the top of the eighth and Sanders worked what proved to be a costly bases-loaded walk to make it 5-3 Baylor.  

With one out and nobody on in the last of the eighth, Williamson dropped down a bunt single and Edian Espinal followed with a single to right to put runners on the corners. Andrew Sundean then drove Williamson home by reaching on an error to make it a 5-4 contest. Baylor reliever Grayson Murry responded, however, by drawing back-to-back outs to send it to the ninth. After UCF’s Kris Sosnowski retired the Bears in order in the top of the ninth, the Black and Gold got a one-out single from Braden Calise in the bottom of the ninth to put the tying run on the base paths, but BU’s Murry responded with a game-ending double play to seal the victory.

Williamson led the Knights by going 2-for-4 with a home run, two runs scored and an RBI. Jimenez followed by going 1-for-4 with a homer, while the senior Sundean drove in a run and fellow senior Lex Boedicker recorded a hit on Senior Knight.

BU reliever Caleb Bunch earned the win in relief to move to 2-0 on the year. His teammate Murry earned his second save after tossing the final 1.2 innings. Despite allowing just one unearned run, UCF’s Kevin Schoneboom was tagged with the loss to drop to 1-2.

The Knights and Bears will close the series in the regular season finale on Saturday at 12 p.m. at John Euliano Park. The ballgame will air live on ESPN+ as well as FM 96.9 The Game.