UCF Baseball 2025 Season in Review

ORLANDO – The 2025 UCF baseball season was filled with many memorable moments. It was a season that saw historic performances, wins over nationally ranked foes and the emergence of elite players.

Here are a few of the highlights from the season.

THE RUNDOWN

The 2025 campaign marked UCF’s ninth consecutive winning season, as the team finished with a 29-26 overall record. The Knights also finished with a 19-13 home record as well as tallied nine Big 12 Conference victories (9-21) to finish 13th in the conference standings.

The Black and Gold won a total of seven series on the season, which included sweeps over Siena and Monmouth. Three of the series victories were over Big 12 foes, as the Knights claimed series over BYU, TCU and Texas Tech.

The Black and Gold also totaled 10 midweek victories en route to dominating midweek competition with a 10-3 record in those contests. UCF too had another strong year against Sunshine State foes by going 9-4 against in-state opponents with wins over Florida, Miami, Stetson (two), South Florida (two), Florida Atlantic, North Florida and Florida A&M.

Head coach Rich Wallace upped his career record to 66-47 (.584 winning percentage), as the 2025 season marked year two for Wallace at the helm of his alma mater.

RANKED VICTORIES

The Knights recorded a trio of victories over nationally ranked foes on the year. UCF defeated No. 6 Florida by a score of 13-3 at home on March 4 and followed that up by taking two of three over conference opponent and 15th-ranked TCU at John Euliano Park April 17-19. After the Horned Frogs claimed game one of the series, the Black and Gold responded by taking games two and three by respective scores of 5-1 and 4-2. In all, UCF finished the season with a 3-7 ledger against ranked opponents.

WINS OVER 2025 NCAA TOURNAMENT TEAMS

The Black and Gold picked up seven wins on the season over opponents that went on to qualify for the 2025 NCAA Baseball Tournament. UCF recorded two victories over No. 15 TCU, two over Stetson, and one over No. 6 Florida, Miami and Kansas State.

FOUR KNIGHTS EARN ALL-BIG 12 HONORABLE MENTION HONORS

Four Knights earned All-Big 12 Conference Honorable Mention recognition in sophomore right fielder Andrew Williamson, junior center fielder DeAmez Ross, junior second baseman Edian Espinal and redshirt junior catcher Dylan King.

Williamson led the Black and Gold in nearly every offensive category by hitting .352 with 13 home runs, 19 doubles, four triples, 58 runs scored and 53 runs batted in. The native of St. Petersburg, Florida also led the way in walks (34), on-base percentage (.448), slugging (.662), and finished second in stolen bases by going a perfect 13-for-13. He committed just one error in the outfield, as he recorded defensive tallies of 92 putouts, three outfield assists and a .990 fielding percentage while starting all 55 games in right field. Williamson also led the squad with a 31-game reached base safely streak as well as 26 multiple-hit games and 16 multiple-RBI contests on the year. 

Ross led the team in batting and the Big 12 Conference in hits through the regular season with a .359 average and 84 hits. The 84 hits were not only good enough to lead the league but also rank him 18th nationally at the end of the regular season. The Melbourne, Florida native led the team in stolen bases with 14 and finished second in doubles with 15 and third in runs scored with 53. He totaled 19 extra-base hits on the season along with 35 RBIs from the leadoff spot. Ross started all 55 games in center field and led the team with an 18-game hitting streak in his first season in a UCF uniform.

The junior college transfer Espinal had a strong start to his first season at the NCAA Division I level by hitting over .500 through the first month to lead the nation in batting at one point. He finished the season with a .335 clip and 17 extra-base hits, 41 runs scored, 37 RBIs, 21 walks and 11 stolen bases. He also posted a .470 slugging percentage and a .434 on-base clip. In 51 games played and 46 starts, the native of Canovanas, Puerto Rico recorded a 14-game hitting streak as well as a 28-game reached base safely streak on the year. He also posted 19 multiple-hit games and 11 multiple-RBI ones.

With a solid season both offensively and defensively, King became UCF’s every-day catcher as well as one of the top catchers in the league by starting 40 games behind the plate. The redshirt junior from Delray Beach, Florida hit .326 on the year with nine home runs, 13 doubles, two triples, 34 runs scored and 34 runs batted in. With 24 extra-base hits, he finished second on the team in both slugging and on-base percentage with respective tallies of .652 and .442. He also threw out seven would-be base stealers and recorded 318 putouts, 23 assists and a .977 fielding percentage.

WILLIAMSON HITS FOR THE CYCLE

For the first time since 2015, a UCF Knight hit for the cycle. Andrew Williamson achieved the rare feat in his first four at-bats on May 11 at Texas Tech with a double in the first, home run in the second, triple in the fifth and single in the seventh. He finished the game going 4-for-5 with four runs scored and two runs batted in. The homer marked his third of the weekend as he homered in all three games against the Red Raiders. The cycle marked UCF’s first since Tommy Williams hit for the cycle on March 13, 2015, against Fairfield.

ANDREW WILLIAMSON JUST HIT FOR THE CYCLE‼️

First UCF cycle since 2015! pic.twitter.com/Prwg3IgCJJ

— UCF Baseball (@UCF_Baseball) May 11, 2025

SECOND LARGEST HOME CROWD IN PROGRAM HISTORY

UCF’s March 4 game against Florida had a lot of highlights. But one of the biggest was the size of the crowd. Knight Nation packed John Euliano Park that evening to see the Knights defeat the sixth-ranked Gators by the score of 13-3. The final attendance was totaled at 4,204 to mark the second-largest home crowd in program history. This attendance figure was only 115 fans behind the Knights’ all-time record of 4,319 on March 3, 2015, against Florida. The Black and Gold defeated the then-No. 2 ranked Gators 4-3 that night as well.

BIG 12 LEADER IN BOTH BATTING AVERAGE AND EARNED RUN AVERAGE

The Black and Gold finished the 2025 campaign as the Big 12 Conference leader in both batting average and earned run average. UCF led the league in hitting with a .319 team batting average. The Knights’ pitching staff also led the conference in ERA with a 4.29 team ERA as well as WHIP with a 1.30 average. UCF’s .319 batting average also marked the nation’s sixth-best clip while the ERA ranked 19th and WHIP 16th.

TURNIN’ TWO

The UCF defense finished the season ranked in the top 10 nationally in both double plays and double plays per game. By turning 52 total double plays, the Black and Gold defense finished the year ranked ninth nationally and second in the Big 12. The Knights also finished sixth in NCAA Division I Baseball and first in the league with a 0.95 double plays per game average.

RANKED KNIGHTS

The Knights were nationally ranked for one week on the season. With a 15-4 record at the time, UCF held down the No. 25 spot on the Perfect Game poll for the week of March 17-23. The Black and Gold had recently recorded wins over No. 6 Florida, Miami, and a Big 12 series victory on the road at BYU prior to entering the top 25 for the second straight season.

DOUBLE DIGIT RUNS

The UCF offense scored 10 or more runs in an impressive tally of 16 games on the season. Fifteen of those 16 were wins and one included a season-high 22 runs scored on a season-best 23 hits in a victory over Presbyterian on May 13. The Knights also had a stretch in which they scored 10 runs or more in five straight games and six of seven. During that stretch, which went on to include an eight-game winning streak, UCF outscored the opposition by an impressive tally of 103-22.

ESPINAL’S WALK-OFF HEROICS

UCF’s Feb. 21 game against Bryant resulted in a 7-6 win for the Knights thanks to the heroics of Edian Espinal. After being brought into the game in the bottom of the ninth as a pinch hitter and with his team down a run, Espinal made the most of his lone at-bat by driving the ball into left field for a two-run walk-off single to give the Black and Gold the win. This hit gave Espinal, who transferred to UCF from the junior college Chipola before the season, his first RBIs as a Knight as well as at the NCAA Division I level.

ONE OF THE HITS LEADERS IN THE BIG 12

Center fielder DeAmez Ross was one of the top hitters in the Big 12 Conference all season long, as he finished second in the league in hits with 84 total hits on the year. He also finished the season ranked in the top 50 nationally in that category. He totaled 19 extra-base hits on the season along with 53 runs scored and 35 RBIs from the leadoff spot. Ross started all 55 games in center field and led the team with an 18-game hitting streak in his first season in a UCF uniform.

CASTELLANO AND STAGLIANO NAMED PRESEASON ALL-BIG 12

Senior pitchers Dominic Castellano and Dom Stagliano were named to the 2025 Preseason All-Big 12 Baseball Team. Last season, Castellano was the Knights’ top relief pitcher. He put together a 7-0 record with a 2.83 ERA, three saves in 60.1 innings and an opposing batting average of .164. Stagliano was the Knights’ top starting pitcher in 2024, as he went 3-4 with a 4.10 ERA and struck out 66 batters in 74.2 innings. He also finished with one of the best WHIP and strikeouts per nine innings in the nation, as he ranked 19th nationally in WHIP (1.02) and 28th in hits per nine innings (6.51). for their performances, Castellano was named ABCA/Rawlings Southeast All-Region Second Team and Big 12 Conference honorable mention accolades, while Stagliano received All-Big 12 Second Team recognition.