Baseball Drops Midweek Contest to Miami, 9-5Baseball Drops Midweek Contest to Miami, 9-5

Baseball Drops Midweek Contest to Miami, 9-5

by James Warnick
Box Score

ORLANDO – Despite Andrew Williamson finishing a just double shy of a cycle and Austin Jacobs belting out a three-run sixth-inning home run, the UCF baseball team found itself on the wrong end of a 9-5 in-state midweek battle to Miami on Wednesday night at John Euliano Park.

The result snapped the Black and Gold’s winning streak at five games and moved the Knights to 9-6 on the season. The Hurricanes improved to 13-4 with the victory.

“There was a lot of good out there from our team—some really good plays in the outfield and some really good at-bats from some of the guys. You just can’t beat a team like that when you make a couple of mental mistakes like we did tonight and it cost us,” head UCF coach Rich Wallace said.

After the Hurricanes got a first-inning solo home run from Jake Ogden, Williamson answered right back for the Knights with a solo home run of his own in the bottom of the first to tie it up at 1-1. Williamson’s home run traveled 369 feet and marked his team-leading third of the season and the 21st of his career.

With UCF starter Camden Wicker pitching well on the mound, the Black and Gold picked up a run in the third following a Williamson triple and a Zak Skinner RBI groundout to take a 2-1 advantage. With the Knights having gone to the bullpen, Miami scored three runs in the fourth, one in the fifth, and another in the sixth to take a 6-2 lead.

Following a Landon Moran double and a Jordan Lodise single, the redshirt freshman Jacobs then hit out his first collegiate home run with a three-run big fly to left field in the bottom of the sixth to cut the deficit to one. Jacobs’ round tripper traveled 364 feet.

Following a walk and a sac bunt from the Hurricanes in the top of the seventh, All-American Daniel Cuvet delivered an RBI single. Miami’s Derek Williams and Alonzo Alvarez later added RBIs in the frame to give the Hurricanes some breathing room at 9-5.

UCF got strong bullpen work down the stretch from Kevin Schoneboom and freshman Zachary Malvasio in the right-hander’s first collegiate appearance on the mound. The two combined for 2.2 innings of scoreless relief and four combined strikeouts. But the Black and Gold offense went down in order in the eighth and couldn’t drive in John Smith III who singled with one out in the ninth, as Miami held on for the victory.

The Knights used a combined 10 pitchers in the ballgame. Freshman Max Murray was tagged with his first loss to fall to 1-1 on the season while Miami reliever TJ Coates was credited with the win to move to 2-0.

Offensively, Williamson went 3-for-5 with a single, triple and home run. He added two runs and an RBI. Smith III was next by going 2-for-5 while Jacobs finished 1-for-4 with the three-run home run. Brylan West led Miami by going 3-for-5 with a double and an RBI, while Alvarez finished 2-for-4 with three runs batted in.

The game marked the second and final meeting of the season between the Knights and Hurricanes. It was also the Black and Gold’s eighth game of a current 12-game homestand. UCF had a season-high 3,012 fans in attendance.

On Deck

The Knights will continue the homestand by opening Big 12 Conference play with a three-game home series against Oklahoma State Friday to Sunday at John Euliano Park. Friday and Saturday’s games are scheduled for 6 p.m., while Sunday’s series finale is at noon. All three games will air live on ESPN+.