ORLANDO – After having its midweek game rained out on Tuesday against Stetson, the No. 12 UCF baseball team will return to the road for another key Big 12 series this weekend at Kansas.
The series between the first place Knights and the second place Jayhawks will run Friday to Sunday at KU’s Hoglund Ballpark. Friday’s game is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET/6 p.m. CT, while Saturday’s contest is set for 3 p.m. ET/2 p.m. CT, and Sunday’s finale will begin at 1 p.m. ET/noon CT. All three games will air on ESPN+, as well as on the radio with Friday and Sunday’s games to air on 810 AM Orlando and Saturday’s on FM 96.9 The Game. Live stats will also be available for all three contests by visiting UCF.StatBroadcast.com.
After winning their fourth straight Big 12 series last weekend, 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 the weekend 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.
Williamson Tabbed Perfect Game National Player of the Week
After his big series at WVU last weekend, junior outfielder Andrew Williamson has been named the Perfect Game College Baseball National Player of the Week this 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.
About Kansas
The Jayhawks will enter the series in second place in the conference standings with a 23-10 overall record and one game back of the Black and Gold with a 9-3 league mark. KU has won seven straight ballgames and 13 of its last 15. After dropping two of three in the conference-opening series at Texas Tech, Kansas has responded with sweeps over Houston and Utah, as well as a series win at No. 25 Cincinnati. After sweeping Utah at home last weekend, KU most recently defeated No. 19 Nebraska 5-3 in midweek action on Tuesday in Lincoln. The Jayhawks are currently receiving votes for both the NCBWA and USA TODAY Coaches polls.
The Jayhawks were picked to tie for fifth in the Big 12 this season after going 43-17 overall and finishing second in the league standings last year with a program-best 20-10 conference record. KU had its 2025 season come to a close at the Fayetteville Regional.
Cade Baldridge paces KU with a .328 average and Jordan Bach is right behind him with a .326 clip and team-best tallies of 11 doubles and 37 runs scored. Tyson Leblanc leads the squad in the power numbers with 20 extra-base hits, 12 home runs, 39 RBIs and is tied for the team-lead in 37 runs scored. Mathis Nayral fronts the starting rotation with a 4-1 recors, 4.73 ERA, and 42 strikeouts in 40.0 innings. Kannon Carr and Boede Rahe are a couple of KU’s top relievers with a trio of combined saves, 3.10 and 4.13 respective ERAs, and 57 combined strikeouts.
Kansas is coached by Dan Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald is in his fourth season at KU and holds a 122-82 record.
All-Time Series
Friday’s series opener will mark the ninth all-time meeting between the Knights and Jayhawks. UCF and KU will enter play all deadlocked up at 4-4. The Black and Gold took two of three in Lawrence in 2024, but Kansas responded by sweeping the three-game set in Orlando last season.
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
Following this weekend’s series, UCF will return to John Euliano Park for four games next week. The Knights will first host in-state foe Jacksonville on Tuesday, before welcoming Cincinnati to town for a three-game league series next weekend.