ORLANDO – John Smith III belted out a three-run home run in the second inning, and the bullpen tossed five scoreless innings down the stretch to lead UCF baseball to an 8-5 midweek victory over Columbia on Tuesday night at John Euilano Park.
The Knights improved to 13-6 overall with the victory and capped a 12-game homestand with a 9-3 record. The Black and Gold have also won nine of their last 10 games. The Lions, who won the Ivy League a season ago to qualify for the NCAA Tournament, dropped to 2-11 with the setback.
“I thought we executed really well in the early innings. Obviously the two-out three-run home from John Smith was important,” head UCF coach Rich Wallace said. “Throughout the game, I thought that the at-bats were productive. But for me, the story of the night was how many guys on the mound were really good for us.”
Down a run in the bottom of the first inning, Cayden Gaskin doubled to lead things off and came in to score on a sacrifice fly from Smith III to tie things up. Zak Skinner then immediately followed with an RBI groundout to give the Knights a 2-1 lead.
The Black and Gold added a run in the second on a sacrifice from Jordan Lodise to make it 3-1. Gaskin later worked a two-out walk and Andrew Williamson followed with a single up the middle to put runners on the corners with two away. The senior Smith III then stepped to the plate and drilled out a 3-2 pitch to left field for a three-run home run to make it 6-1. Smith III’s homer marked his first as a Knight and traveled 377 feet and was clocked at 111 MPH off the bat.
Smith III rockets a 3⃣-run shot out to left for his 1st home run as a Knight! pic.twitter.com/EwzxDqoSnV
— UCF Baseball (@UCF_Baseball) March 17, 2026
UCF then tacked on another run in the third, as James Hankerson Jr. worked a two-out walk and Lodise drove him home by ripping an RBI double down the leftfield line to extend the Black and Gold’s advantage to 7-1.
Lodise pulls a double into the corner to drive home Hankerson Jr.🤯 pic.twitter.com/nBwPZi0Dg0
— UCF Baseball (@UCF_Baseball) March 17, 2026
The Lions struck back in the fourth inning with a grand slam off the bat of Jackson Brewer to pull within a pair at 7-5. UCF answered, however, with a run in the fifth to make it 8-5. Landon Moran singled, stole second, and came in to score on an RBI single from DeAmez Ross.
The Black and Gold bullpen responded over the final five innings of the game by putting up zeros the rest of the way. Max Murray surrendered just one run on one hit over 2.1 solid innings. Mateo Gray followed with a pair of scoreless frames and Michael Gillen finished things off by recording the final four outs to earn his first save as a Knight.
Gillen records his 1st save as a Knight to complete the victory🙌 pic.twitter.com/R2rFJ2TfXX
— UCF Baseball (@UCF_Baseball) March 18, 2026
Senior Kevin Schoneboom earned the win in relief after tossing 1.1 innings of scoreless action to move to 1-0 on the season. Columbia starter Jack Korthas was tagged with the loss to drop to 0-2.
Smith III led the way by going 1-for-2 with the three-run home run, two runs scored and a season-high four RBIs. Ross was next by going 2-for-3 with a walk, an RBI, a run scored and two stolen bases, while Skinner finished 2-for-5 with an RBI. Brewer paced the Lions by finishing just a triple shy of the cycle with a 3-for-4 night with four runs batted in.
The contest marked UCF’s final game of a 12-game homestand and fourth consecutive opponent that made the 2025 NCAA Tournament of a stretch that includes seven straight.
On Deck
The Black and Gold will next head to Fort Worth, Texas, for a three-game Big 12 series at preseason favorite TCU. The series will run Friday to Sunday at Lupton Stadium, and all three games will air live on ESPN+. Friday’s opener is set for 7 p.m. ET/6 p.m. CT, while game two will follow on Saturday at 6 p.m. ET/5 p.m. CT. The series will close on Sunday at 2 p.m. ET/1 p.m. CT. Following Sunday’s finale, UCF will return to the Sunshine State to face Stetson in DeLand on Tuesday, March 24.