ORLANDO – The UCF baseball team will open a four-game road trip at in-state foe Florida Atlantic on Tuesday evening in Boca Raton.
The midweek contest will be held at FAU Baseball Stadium and will begin at 6:30 p.m. The game will air live on ESPN+ and live stats can be followed by visiting UCF.StatBroadcast.com. The ballgame will mark UCF’s final road midweek game of the season.
The Black and Gold will enter the game with a 27-17 overall record and in fourth place in the Big 12 standings with a 15-9 conference record. The 15 league wins marks a program-best for UCF since joining the Big 12 Conference prior to the 2024 season. The Knights are currently receiving votes for this week’s NCBWA Top 25 Poll.
The Knights went 2-2 last week with a midweek victory over neighboring foe Stetson, before dropping two of three to No. 19 Arizona State at home over the weekend. In the inaugural series between the two, ASU claimed the opener, 9-4, before UCF responded to take game two by a score of 4-2. The Sun Devils then managed to tie the series finale in the eighth inning and scored three runs in the ninth to take the finale to claim the series by a score of 6-3.
In Friday’s opener, UCF hit out back-to-back first-inning home runs from Zak Skinner and Javier Crespo to give the Knights an early lead. ASU then responded with three runs in the second inning and three more in the third inning en route to pulling out the opener by a score of 9-4.
The second game of the series then got underway on Saturday afternoon, but play was halted due to weather tied at 1-1 after two innings of play. After a three-hour delay, the game was then suspended and resumed at 1 p.m. on Sunday. When play resumed on Sunday, Roman Kimball entered on the mound following an apparent injury to Kris Sosnowski. Kimball had a strong outing in relief in which he tossed 4.1 innings and allowed just one run on three hits while striking out three to give the Knights a chance.
With UCF holding to a late 4-2 lead, Evan Jones then came on and managed to pitch out of a bases loaded jam in the eighth inning and another in the ninth to earn the save. Crespo led the offense in the game by going a season-high 4-for-4 in the game while Skinner homered for the second straight game and drove in a pair of runs.
In a bullpen game for both teams in the series finale on Sunday afternoon, the Black and Gold bullpen managed to limit the Sun Devil offense to just a couple of hits for the majority of the game. With UCF holding to a late 3-2 lead following an RBI double from DeAmez Ross in the sixth and a go-ahead sacrifice fly from Landon Moran in the seventh, ASU managed to respond with a run in the eighth to tie it and three more in the ninth to claim the finale and the series.
The senior third baseman Crespo led UCF in the series by batting .545 with a homer, two scored and an RBI. Senior designated hitter JD Rogers was next by hitting an even .500 while freshman shortstop Jordan Lodise hit .455 with a double. Right-handers Anthony Lariz and Kimball had strong performances on the mound in the series in relief, as the redshirt freshman Lariz gave up just one run on four hits while striking out four over 4.2 innings in two appearances and Kimball earned the win in game two after surrendering just one run on three hits over 4.1 innings.
Season Leaders
The senior catcher Skinner leads the Black and Gold on the season with a .368 average and 60 hits. He is also second in RBIs with 36 and third in runs scored with 33. Senior outfielder Smith III is next with a .329 average. He is tops on the team with 11 home runs and 42 RBIs. Senior third baseman is next with a .324 clip while junior outfielder Williamson is batting .320 with 10 home runs, and team-best tallies of 25 extra-base hits and 48 runs scored. On the mound, Camden Wicker leads the rotation with a 4-2 record, 3.38 ERA, and 52 strikeouts in 56.0 innings. The trio of Sosnowski (2.10 ERA, 4 SV), Jones (3.00 ERA, 4 SV) and Kevin Schoneboom (3.09 ERA, 1 SV) lead the way from the bullpen.
About Florida Atlantic
The Owls will enter Tuesday with a 24-23 overall record and tied for fifth place in the American Conference standings with a 10-11 league clip. FAU has won five of its last seven games and has taken four consecutive league series by taking two of three from Memphis, Tulane, Charlotte and South Florida. Florida Atlantic also defeated in-state foe FGCU in midweek competition last week.
FAU was picked to finish sixth in the American this year after finishing fourth a season ago with a 37-21 overall record and a 15-12 conference mark.
John Martinez paces the Owls offensively with a .330 average. He also leads the way in doubles with 15, RBIs with 38, and is tied atop the team in extra-base hits with 19. Ian Collier is next with a .325 batting average and tops the club in home runs with eight. Nick Romano follows with a .322 clip. James Litman paces the starting rotation with an 8-3 record and a 3.80 ERA. Kide Adetuyi tops the team in strikeouts with 78 strikeouts in 61.2 innings. Zach Kilby is one of the top relievers with a 4.17 ERA and two saves.
Florida Atlantic is coached by John McCormack. McCormack is in his 18th season at the helm of FAU and recently surpassed the 600-career win plateau.
All-Time Series vs. FAU
Tuesday’s game will mark the 93rd all-time meeting between the Knights and Owls. UCF will enter play holding to a 50-42 all-time advantage. The Black and Gold have won three of the last four meetings against FAU, which includes two straight in Boca Raton. In the most recent meeting, UCF defeated Florida Atlantic 17-2 in seven innings on April 22, 20225, in Boca Raton. Tuesday will mark the lone season meeting between the two.
Wicker Tabbed Big 12 Pitcher of the Week
Junior right-hander Camden Wicker was named the Big 12 Co-Pitcher of the Week last week after tossing the seven-inning complete-game shutout on April 25 at Utah. Wicker tied a career-long by tossing 7.0 dominant innings in which he allowed just two hits and no runs while striking out five and walking just two. He allowed just four baserunners to reach in the contest and faced the minimum in three of his seven innings of work.
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 three weeks ago, the Knights are currently just outside of the top 25 this week and receiving votes for the NCBWA Top 25 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.
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.
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 Black and Gold will continue the road trip with their final regular season Big 12 road series of the season this weekend at Baylor. The series will run Friday to Sunday at Baylor Ballpark in Waco, Texas.
