Errors and inconsistencies shine in losing skid

Spirits were high following the first weekend of conference play. The UCF Knights were coming off a series win and following the midweek victory over Stetson, sat at a robust 16-4 record having won 10 of 11.

Despite getting out of the frigid elements played through up in Provo, the Knight bats have remained in the cold.

Recap of the Week (and a half)

Midweek 1

Stetson (3-0 W)

Weekend

Houston (5-7 L, 7-1 W, 4-7 L)

Midweek 2

Jacksonville (2-3 L)

The Bad

Oh boy. Starting with the bad.

• Bats Frozen
  • Since returning to the state of Florida, the bats have not warmed back up. Over the last five games, the Knights are batting a combined .235, a far cry from the .332 that they have sported for the entire season.
  • In that time, UCF has struck out 37 times while leaving 43 runners on base. Worse still, when the Knights have gotten hits, only 10 of those have been for extra bases, and nary a home run to be found since Dylan King’s sixth inning blast in the finale against BYU.
• Defensive Dismay
  • The loss to Jacksonville included their season-worst four errors for the Knight defense, leading to all three of the Dolphins’ runs.
• Bullpen Blowup
  • Games 1 and 3 against the Houston Cougars both had bullpen meltdowns for the Knights, resulting in those two losses. In both contests, Dominic Castellano had arguably his worst outings of the year, not getting an out in the first game and being unable to keep Houston off the board in the third.
  • Game 1 saw a 5-0 lead dissolve where Game 3 had two moments where the Knights rallied to tie the game only to have the Cougars retake the lead in the following frame.

The Good

• Emerging Arms
  • Despite the bullpen woes, the Knights did get solid relief outings from the following:
    • Russell Sandefer: three innings of one-hit ball against Stetson; Kevin Schoneboom: 2 ⅔ scoreless over four games including entering with the bases loaded twice and stranding all runners; Angelo Smith: 3 ⅔ two-hit innings against Houston
    • Carter Stanford: 3 ⅓ scoreless against Houston & Jacksonville

The Speculative

• Rotation Shuffle
  • Based on certain comments by head coach Rich Wallace after Sunday’s game, the Knights may be moving their rotation around this coming weekend. When asked about why Dom Stagliano was pulled in this contest after just 61 pitches in five innings, Wallace stated, “just where we were in the lineup and some things we’ll talk about later this week.”
  • This occurred a day after Wiley Hartley was also pulled early in his outing the night prior, throwing just 68 pitches over five innings. Grant Siegel was then taken out of his start against Jacksonville after only 39 pitches.

UCF now finds themselves in search of answers after losing three of their last four, including the surprising midweek loss against Jacksonville. In some cases, one just has to tip their cap to the opponent, such as when Houston’s Antoine Jean entered Friday’s game to begin the 5^th inning and proceeded to mow down the Knight hitters with ease, striking out 11 in his five innings of work, allowing just three hits, all of which came in the 9^th as the Knights gave it one last go.

In other situations, such as the Jacksonville midweek and the finale against Houston, the Knights effectively beat themselves, finding themselves unable to take advantage of opportunity after opportunity provided to them. In 13 innings of the 45 played over the last five games, UCF has stranded at least two runners on base. In only three of those innings were those stranded runners remnants of a run-scoring rally.

The Week(end) Ahead

The recent lack of clutch hitting and the inopportune times of the bullpen implosions have given Knight Nation cause for concern, but the team hopes to have something figured out for this upcoming weekend as the third weekend of conference play ensues.

UCF stays on the road as they head northwest.

Cincinnati Bearcats (13-11, 1-5 Big 12) (Friday-Sunday, 3/28-3/30, 6/3/1 PM, ESPN+)

Common Opponents:

• BYU (1-2 series loss; 7-5 L, 5-4 W, 4-2 L)

It’s time for this rivalry to resume. The Knights head up to Cincinnati to face the Bearcats (The Binturong!) in the weekend set. These two teams squared off in four total contests last year, with Cincinnati taking the series at UCF before the Knights won their matchup in the Big 12 tournament in a game many fans won’t soon forget, as catcher Danny Neri blasted three home runs, a first-time Big 12 tournament occurrence.

Cincinnati is currently mired in a bit of a rut themselves, having dropped six of their last eight contests as they were swept by Arizona and had a series loss to BYU. For their series against Arizona, however, their starting rotation got ravaged by illness. With That Being Said™, Arizona has been on an incredible run. After starting 0-3, the Wildcats have gone 18-2, so the series result might not have been much different.

Speaking of Bearcat pitchers …

Pitching

Cincinnati has been going with Kellen O’Connor for their series-opening matchups, but their ace thus far this year has been Sophomore right-hander Nathan Taylor. While O’Connor has put together a respectable season, sporting a 4.50 ERA over 18 innings while striking out the same amount, Taylor leads the Bearcats in multiple categories, including ERA (2.35), strikeouts (42), innings (30 ⅔), and wins (3, tied).

The Bearcats’ typical third starter has been Senior lefty Adam Mrakitsch, a transfer from Central Michigan. Mrakitsch has not handled the step-up in competition well yet, holding an ERA of 6.52 over 19 ⅓ innings and allowing an opponent’s average of .316.

Should Cincinnati look to make a change in their rotation, Junior Joel Piniero (FIU transfer) might be who they choose. Piniero thus far has provided the Bearcats with 21 innings with a 4.29 ERA and holding batters to a .241 average.

Out of the bullpen, Cincinnati has a few options. Freshman lefty Hudson Johnson has put up an impressive campaign, striking out 21 over 20 ⅔ frames and putting up a 3.48 ERA. Senior Brandon Scheurer is another option, having made 10 appearances to lead the team, pitching 13 ⅔ innings and allowing a .245 average.

Hitting

Cincinnati’s offense as a whole has put up solid numbers, slashing .283/.397/.445 on the year and putting up efficient base-stealing numbers thus far, with 49 steals in 56 attempts.

The Bearcat lineup is headed by a pair of seniors in infielder Kerrington Cross (once again, not to be confused with the wrestler Karrion Kross) and outfielder Landyn Vidourek.

Thus far, Cross is slashing an impressive .425/.526/.650 on the year with four homers and leads the team in hits (34) and runs (25). Cross boasts a higher walk rate than strikeout rate, walking 15 times and striking out just 12 times thus far.

Vidourek currently leads the team in home runs with six and RBI with 23, along with a major lead in the stolen base category with 16 – only one other player has more than four (freshman shortstop Charlie Niehaus with 8). Vidourek is slashing .325/.449/.649 on the season with those power and speed numbers.

The aforementioned Niehaus has put up strong numbers in his freshman campaign, slashing .311/.411/.500 with a single home run thus far, but three triples, which leads the team.

Additionally, catcher Jackson Natili, a Rutgers transfer, is currently second on the team in hits with 30 and a slash line of .353/.467/.447, and outfielder Cal Sefcik (Indiana transfer) is currently tied for second on the team with four home runs and sports a .937 OPS.

Despite Cross’ ability to put bat to ball, the Bearcats overall do strike out a lot – in fact, they are currently tied with Eastern Kentucky for having the 8^th-most strikeouts in the nation out of 307 teams. If UCF’s pitching staff can come together and stick to their gameplan, this might be one area they can exploit.

Final Notes

Hard to find much to say after the team suffered a frankly embarrassing defeat in the most recent midweek contest. One must hope that it lights another fire under the team and that they can figure it out again. The Knights went from a team averaging final scores of nearly 12-4 over a 10-game stretch (9 wins) to one that can’t seem to find a clutch hit at the most crucial of times.

Following the Cincinnati series, the Knights will return home for a five-game homestand to start the month of April.