ORLANDO – The UCF baseball team will step out of conference play for a midweek contest at Bethune-Cookman on Tuesday night in Daytona Beach.
The in-state contest will begin at 6 p.m. at B-CU’s Jackie Robinson Ballpark. The game will be streamed live on YouTube and live stats will be available by visiting BCUAthletics.com.
The Knights will enter the ballgame with a 21-15 overall record and currently in a tie for third place in the Big 12 Conference standings with an 11-7 league record. UCF is currently receiving votes for this week’s USA TODAY Coaches Poll.
UCF most recently dropped two of three games at home to Cincinnati last weekend. Behind a dominant start on the mound from Mateo Gray in the series opener, the Black and Gold claimed the opener by a score of 7-1. The Bearcats then responded to win game two 9-3, and UC managed to pull out a wild Sunday rubber match by a score of 11-9 for just UCF’s second conference series loss of the season.
In just his fourth career start, the sophomore right-hander Gray had a career outing by going a career-long 7.2 innings and striking out a career-best nine batters. He shined on the mound in the contest by allowing just one run on four hits. Gray faced the minimum in three innings of work and didn’t allow a run until the eighth inning. Reliever Anthony Lariz then came on and finished things out to help propel the Knights to a 7-1 opening victory. The two combined to allow just four hits on the day.
The Knight offense scored four runs in the fourth inning of Friday’s contest and added three more runs over the next three innings to put the game away. Landon Moran had a two-run double early. Seven different Knights recorded hits and seven different players scored runs. Moran led the way by going 1-for-2 with a double, two RBIs and a run scored.
UCF got a trio of solo home runs in game two, but it wasn’t enough as UC claimed the contest 9-3. Andrew Williamson, John Smith III and JD Rogers all homered in the game for the Black and Gold.
Junior starter Camden Wicker got off to a strong start on the mound in game three by striking out a career-high nine batters on the afternoon. He tossed four scoreless frames, but Cincinnati managed to put up five runs in the fifth inning to take a 5-3 advantage. The Knights responded, however, with a six-run bottom of the fifth to take a 9-5 lead. Smith III had the big hit in the inning with a grand slam to straight away center field. Moran later followed with a solo homer to deep right and Rogers followed him up by going back-to-back for his second home run of the game and his third of the weekend.
The Bearcats then got a homer in the sixth, another in the seventh and two more in the ninth to earn an 11-9 come-from-behind victory. In all, both teams combined for nine home runs in the contest.
For the series, Rogers led the way offensively by homering three times and going 3-for-4 with three runs scored, five RBIs and a walk. The first baseman Moran was next by batting .444 with a double, a homer, three runs scored and three runs batted in. Smith III followed by batting .300 with two round trippers, four runs scored and five RBIs. In all, UCF homered seven times during the course the Cincinnati series. On the mound, Gray led the way by going 1-0 with a 1.17 ERA over 7.2 dominant innings of work with nine strikeouts. Relievers Kevin Schoneboom, Roman Kimball, Mathew Heyl, Kaniel Rosado and Zachary Malvasio all tossed scoreless outings over the series.
Season Leaders
Catcher Zak Skinner and outfielder John Smith III are tied atop the team with identical .339 batting averages. Smith III also leads the way in RBIs with 31 and is second on the team in home runs (7) and extra-base hits (14). Junior outfielder Andrew Williamson is next with a .312 clip and tops on the squad with 10 home runs, 39 runs scored, 22 extra-base hits, a .645 slugging, and a .430 on-base clip. He is also second in doubles (8) and RBIs (30). Junior right-hander Matt Sauser fronts the starting rotation with a 2.36 ERA, while sophomore righty Mateo Gray is a perfect 4-0 and junior righty Camden Wicker leads with 43 strikeouts over 47.0 innings. Right-handers Kevin Schoneboom (2.31 ERA), Kris Sosnowski (2.75 ERA, 2 SV) and Evan Jones (3.27 ERA, 2 SV) are a couple of the top arms from the bullpen.
About Bethune-Cookman
The Wildcats will enter Tuesday with a 29-11 overall record and tied for first place in the SWAC with a 15-3 conference clip. Bethune-Cookman has won six in a row and nine of its last 10 games. During the stretch, B-CU has recorded victories over Florida and LSU, as well as a sweep over Alabama A&M, and a pair of wins over both Mississippi Valley State and Southern. Bethune-Cookman is currently receiving votes for this week’s NCBWA Top 25 Poll.
The Wildcats were picked to win the SWAC this season after winning both the regular season and tournament title last year with a 37-23 record and a 24-5 league mark. B-CU had its 2025 campaign come to a close at the Tallahassee Regional.
Michael Rodriguez paces Bethune-Cookman offensively with a .389 batting average. Maikol Lucena is next with a .341 average, while former Knight Erick Almonte is hitting .336 with 11 doubles and is second on the team in RBIs with 34. Jeter Polledo leads in RBIs with 42 while Andrey Martinez is tops in homers (6) and doubles (13). Edwin Sanchez is B-CU’s top starting pitchers with an 8-1 record, 2.39 ERA and 54 strikeouts in 52.2 innings. Pablo Torres is one of the top arms from the bullpen with a 2-0 record, 1.20 ERA and two saves.
Bethune-Cookman is coached by head coach Jonathan Hernandez. Hernandez is in his eighth season at B-CU and holds a 181-170 career record.
Scheduled Starting Pitchers for Tuesday
Senior right-hander Roman Kimball is scheduled to make his second start as a Knight on Tuesday. Kimball is 0-1 with a 6.75 ERA and tied a career-long with 4.0 innings of work last Tuesday against Jacksonville. Right-hander Harberstring Abreu will take the ball for B-CU. Abreu is 2-3 with a 4.01 ERA and will be making his 10th start of the season.
All-Time Series vs. Bethune-Cookman
Tuesday’s midweek will mark the first of two season meetings between the Knights and Wildcats. UCF holds a commanding 89-17 all-time series advantage and will enter play having won 12 straight contests and 16 of its last 17 against the Wildcats. The Black and Gold are also 35-10 all-time in Daytona Beach and most recently won 14-1 on April 2, 2024, at Jackie Robinson Ballpark.
Williamson Tabbed Perfect Game National Player of the Week
After his big series at WVU April 3-5, junior outfielder Andrew Williamson was named the Perfect Game College Baseball National Player of the Week. Williamson helped lead the Knights to a big series win at No. 11 WVU by hitting .600 for the series with three home runs, a double, six runs scored and three RBIs. He also drew five walks and posted a stellar 2.333 OPS with a 1.600 slugging percentage and a .733 on-base clip.
He posted his first two-homer game since his freshman season by going 3-for-4 with three runs scored a pair of home runs in a 5-0 victory on Friday. After going 1-for-3 with three walks and a run scored on Saturday, he capped the impressive weekend by going 2-for-3 with a home run, two walks and two runs scored in a 5-1 victory on Sunday to help the Black and Gold capture the pivotal conference series.
Ranked Knights
By entering the top 25 on March 30, the Knights have now been ranked in each of head coach Rich Wallace’s three seasons at the helm of UCF baseball. In his first year in 2024, Wallace helped the Black and Gold spend two weeks in the national rankings in early April and ranked as high as No. 17 by D1Baseball and 16th by the NCBWA. Last season, the Knights spent a week ranked 25th by Perfect Game in mid-March. UCF is 8-14 when ranked in the Rich Wallace era.
After entering the D1Baseball rankings at No. 23 on March 30, the Knights moved up 11 spots to No. 12 the following week in the D1Baseball rankings. After being ranked No. 21 last week, the Knights are currently just outside of the top 25 this week and receiving votes for the USA TODAY Coaches Poll. UCF claimed its first ranked vs. ranked series at WVU since May 18-20, 2017, with No. 29 UCF took two of three from No. 23 South Florida in American Conference action. It also marked the Black and Gold’s first series victory over a ranked foe since April 17-19, 2025, when it took two of three from No. 15 TCU at John Euliano Park.
Cardiac Knights
With Sunday, March 29’s walk-off win over Arizona, the Knights pulled out four walk-off victories all on Sundays over a five-week span. The Knights started the stretch with a 2-1 walk-off win over in-state foe South Florida in the series finale on March 1. With the game all deadlocked at 2-1 heading into the last of the ninth, UCF quickly loaded the bases with nobody out. Zak Skinner then worked a full count with the bases loaded and came through with a sharp single through the right side of the infield to give the Knights the walk-off 2-1 victory.
Trailing 9-4 entering the bottom of the ninth against Murray State on Sunday March 8, the Knights put together a last-inning rally for the ages by scoring six runs to record their second walk-off win of the streak. UCF again quickly loaded the bases with nobody out. Javier Crespo started the scoring with an RBI single, and John Smith III came in to score on a wild pitch. James Hankerson Jr. then made it a 9-8 score with a two-run pinch hit single and Jordan Lodise evened the score with a safety squeeze. After a sac bunt moved the winning run to third base with only one out, Cayden Gaskin delivered a walk-off pinch-hit RBI single to left center to complete the epic comeback.
UCF kept the Sunday walk-off streak alive with by pulling out a 6-5 walk-off win over Oklahoma State on Sunday, March 15, to record its first Big 12 series sweep since joining the conference prior to the 2024 season. After OK State tied things up in the top of the ninth, the Black and Gold offense didn’t waste any time rallying as Landon Moran quickly reached with a sharp leadoff single into right field. DeAmez Ross then dropped down a sacrifice bunt to move him into scoring position and James Hankerson Jr. plated Moran with a walk-off RBI single through the right side of the infield on the first pitch of the at-bat.
The Knights then pulled out their fourth Sunday walk-off win on Sunday, March 29, with a 3-2 13-inning victory. All tied at 2-2 since the eighth inning, Cayden Gaskin doubled into the leftfield corner with one away. Following an intentional walk to John Smith III, the Knights then called upon freshman Stephen Chucka to pinch hit. The hometown kid delivered the game-winning hit with a walk-off RBI single through the right side of the infield to bring in Gaskin and complete the sweep over the 2025 College World Series Wildcats.
On Deck
Following Tuesday’s contest, the Knights will head to the Beehive State to face the University of Utah in a three-game Big 12 series Friday to Sunday in Salt Lake City. Game times are scheduled for 8 p.m. ET/6 p.m. MT on Friday, 4 p.m. ET/2 p.m. MT on Saturday, and 1:30 p.m. ET/11:30 a.m. MT on Sunday.
