ORLANDO – Fresh off a series win at No. 11 West Virginia over the weekend, the No. 12 UCF baseball team will step out of conference play to host neighboring foe Stetson in midweek action on Tuesday.
The in-state midweek contest will begin at 6 p.m. and be contested at John Euliano Park. The game will air live on ESPN+ as well as on the radio at FM 96.9 The Game and the iHeart Radio app. Live stats will also be available by visiting UCF.StatBroadcast.com and the contest will mark 407 Knight for UCF.
After winning their fourth straight Big 12 series, the Knights remain alone atop the Big 12 Conference standings with a 20-9 overall record and a 10-2 conference clip. UCF moved up 11 spots in the D1Baseball Top 25 Poll this week to match their highest ranking since March 9, 2020, when they too were ranked 12th. The Knights took two of three at then-No. 11 West Virginia by taking the opener 5-0 and Sunday’s rubber match 5-1.
UCF will also enter Tuesday currently ranked 13th this week by Perfect Game, No. 16 on the USA TODAY Coaches Poll, and 17th by both Baseball America and the NCBWA.
In Friday’s opener at the defending Big 12 regular-season champion Mountaineers, Andrew Williamson hit out two home runs, and the Knight bullpen tossed eight scoreless innings to lead the Black and Gold to a 5-0 shutout. After Braden Smith went down with an injury at the end of the first inning, the bullpen stepped up as Max Murray, Kevin Schoneboom, Kris Sosnowski and Evan Jones teamed up to shut WVU out. Murray led the way with 3.0 shutout frames, while Sosnowski tossed 2.2 innings, Schoneboom 1.1, and Jones 1.0.
Williamson led the way offensively by going 3-for-4 with two home runs and three runs scored while DeAmez Ross went 2-for-4 with a pair of runs batted in.
After WVU responded by scoring nine late runs to win game two by a score of 11-10, UCF bounced back on Sunday behind 7.0 dominant innings from starter Camden Wicker to take the finale 5-1 to claim the series. He allowed just one run on three hits while striking out a season-high six batters. He faced the minimum in four of his seven innings and allowed just six baserunners on the day. The seven-plus innings matched a career-best for Wicker, as he moved to 3-1 with the win.
Williamson again got the Knights off to a good start offensively on Sunday by belting out his third home run of the series in the first inning. He finished 2-for-3 with two walks and two runs scored. Up 1-0 in the sixth inning, UCF managed to put up a four-spot on the scoreboard to pull ahead at 5-0. James Hankerson Jr. had the big hit in the inning with a clutch two-run pinch-hit single.
For the WVU series, Williamson led the way by batting an even .600 with three home runs, a double, six runs scored, three RBIs and five walks. He also posted a stellar 2.333 OPS. Senior Landon Moran was next by batting .455 while John Smith III followed with a .429 average, two doubles, four runs scored and five RBIs.
By taking the series, the Knights are a perfect 4-for-4 in Big 12 series on the season with home sweeps over Oklahoma State and the defending Big 12 tournament champion Arizona Wildcats, as well as road victories at the preseason favorite TCU Horned Frogs and the defending regular season champion Mountaineers. UCF will enter Tuesday having won five of its last six games.
Season Leaders
Senior outfielder John Smith III leads the way offensively with a .393 batting average. He’s also second on the team in home runs with five, doubles with seven and RBIs with 25. Catcher Zak Skinner is next with a .356 clip, while junior outfielder Andrew Williamson is batting .336 and leads the team in the power numbers with nine home runs, eight doubles, four triples, 36 runs scored and 28 RBIs. He is also second in the team in stolen bases with eight. Matt Sauser tops the UCF starting rotation and holds the nation’s best ERA with a 0.64 clip. Fellow righty Camden Wicker is next with a 3-1 record, 2.52 ERA and 32 strikeouts in 39.1 innings. The trio of Kevin Schoneboom, Kris Sosnowski and Evan Jones lead the way from the bullpen with respective ERAs of 2.50, 2.57 and 3.12. Sosnowski and Jones are also tied for the team lead in saves with two.
Scheduled Starting Pitchers for Tuesday
UCF will go with senior right-hander Roman Kimball (0-1, 13.50 ERA) on Tuesday while Stetson has named right-hander Brendan Walker (0-1, 3.72 ERA). The contest will mark Kimball’s first start as a Knight and Walker’s fourth of the season for the Hatters.
About Stetson
The Hatters will enter Tuesday with a 13-19 record and the season and currently in fourth place in the ASUN Graphite Division with a 4-7 conference mark. Stetson dropped two of three at Jacksonville over the weekend and has dropped five of its last six contests. Stetson went 41-22 a season ago and claimed the ASUN Graphite Division with a 24-6 league record. The Hatters advanced to their second straight NCAA Regional in 2025.
Juan De La Cruz paces Stetson with a .337 batting average, 27 runs scored and 18 stolen bases. Landon Russell is next with a .297 clip, while Yohann Dessureault leads in RBIs with 23 and Samuel Fernandez fronts the team with six home runs. Trace Hartman fronts the Hatters’ starting rotation with a 3-3 record and a 3.00 ERA, while James Hays leads in strikeouts with 42 over a team-best 39.0 innings. Andrew Lepine paces the bullpen with three saves and a 3.86 ERA.
Stetson is coached by head coach Steve Trimper. Trimper is in his 10th season at the helm in DeLand and his 28th season as an NCAA Division I head coach.
All-Time Series vs. Stetson
Tuesday’s midweek contest will mark the 135th all-time meeting between the Knights and Hatters and the second of three season meetings between the foes. UCF will enter play holding to an 81-53 all-time advantage. The Black and Gold have won seven of the last nine meetings, but Stetson defeated UCF 8-4 a couple of weeks ago in DeLand. UCF is 4-2 against Stetson in the Rich Wallace era.
UCF-Stetson Connection
A pair of current Knights previously played at Stetson, as senior first baseman Landon Moran played his first three seasons in DeLand while junior left-handed pitcher Matthew Heyl spent the last two seasons with the Hatters. Former Knight Corey Robinson, who spent the 2023 and 2024 seasons in Orlando, now plays for Stetson. Current UCF assistant coach Shane Gierke also previously coached at Stetson, while former UCF head coach Greg Lovelady is now an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator for the Hatters.
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 7-8 when ranked in the Rich Wallace era.
After entering the D1Baseball rankings at No. 23 on March 30, the Knights moved up 11 spots this week to No. 12 in the D1Baseball rankings. UCF claimed its first ranked vs. ranked series last weekend 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
The 12th-ranked Knights will return to the road for another key Big 12 series this weekend at the second place Kansas Jayhawks. The series will run Friday to Sunday in Lawrence and will air live on ESPN+.