Knights have won six straight

The wake-up call of being run-ruled in the first game of a rivalry series has continued ringing. UCF has come together in complete fashion, steamrolling the opposition over the last six games as conference play approaches.

            The Knights played their first ranked opponent on the year while also finalizing their out-of-conference weekend schedule, facing off against the Florida Gators and Monmouth Hawks.

Recap of the Week

Midweek

#7 Florida (13-3 W)

Weekend

Monmouth (17-1, 18-3, 8-0 sweep)

The Good

• Offensive Explosion
  • During the current six-game winning streak, UCF has averaged 15.5 runs per game, including a run of at least 12 per game during a five-game run starting Saturday, March 1^st against Cow-th Florida.
    • The Knights averaged more than one three-run homer per game during the week, tallying five in the four games.
• Pitchers Holding It Down
  • While it does help being given a plethora of runs to support them, Knight pitchers have combined to allow just ten runs in the six-game streak, including Florida’s season-low of three runs at this point.
• Better Than Average
  • As of the time of writing, UCF top 10 nationally in the following categories:
    • Batting Average (1^st – .356)
      • Edian Espinal is 2^nd in the nation with a .553 average.
    • On-Base Percentage (6^th – .465)
      • Espinal is 1^st in this category at an absolutely absurd .667.
    • ERA (5^th – 2.45)
    • WHIP (10^th – 1.09)

The Bad

• Ouch!
  • While it IS good to get on base any way possible, perhaps the Knights would prefer the bean-ball occurs less often, as the squad tallied 15 hit-by-pitch plate appearances during the week, including six on Saturday. Andrew Sundean led the charge with four on the week, despite getting only nine plate appearances!
  • This surge in being hit by pitches has moved UCF up to tied for 27^th in the nation in times being hit with 34 on the year.
  • Really the only downside of the week!

Following a trio of run-rule games, including a pair of wins on the tail end of that series, UCF came back home to host the 7^th-ranked (D1 Baseball) Florida Gators for a midweek matchup in front an electric crowd. 4,204 fans were accounted for (second-largest crowd in John Euliano Park history) and dozens more lined the outfield fence to watch this matchup.

A first-inning home run by Andrew Williamson brought Knight Nation to life early, and despite Florida quickly tying the game in the 2^nd inning with a number of sharply hit balls, Dominic Castellano came in with two on and one out on his way to 3 ⅔ scoreless innings, allowing just one hit and two walks in that time.

The Knights regained the lead in the 4^th thanks to a Lex Boedicker triple and Braden Calise RBI single immediately after, a lead that remain in place thanks to an incredible relay on a would-be game-tying double to left, started by Chase Krewson from the corner to Antonio Jimenez who threw a one-hop strike to the plate where Dylan King sat waiting for the runner to end the inning.

The Knights never looked back as Edian Espinal opened up the floodgates for the offense blasting a three-run homer over the right field bullpen.

“To the two hitters before me, he kept throwing sliders … so I sat on the slider and I just tried to drive it, and it worked,” Espinal said of the home run.

UCF grabbed four more runs in the sixth and three more in the eighth to seal things up for the Knights as Alex Galvan struck out five in three scoreless innings and Isaac Williams closed things out.

“Offense keeps swinging it, and as a pitcher you gotta get them back in the dugout to get swinging again,” says Galvan about the offensive output behind him. “You can play looser and enjoy the game.”

Following the Florida matchup, UCF hosted the Monmouth Hawks and took care of business in different ways. Game one saw the long-ball play a major part early on, as Boedicker and King each blasted three-run homers in the first inning and Williamson added another later in the game. Game two saw the usage of a bit more small-ball in the middle innings, including three consecutive bunt singles in the 6^th inning to get the game opened up as the Knights would go on to grab seven runs in this inning to stretch what was a modest lead into a blowout. The series finale stayed close throughout until UCF finally broke through in the eighth, doubling what was a 4-0 lead entering the inning to an 8-0 finish.

Throughout the series, pitching remained strong, as Kris Sosnowski got his first start as a Knight in the opener, providing five innings of one-run ball and facing 20 batters in the process. Camden Wicker made his first appearance of the season in this one, striking out five of the seven he faced over two scoreless innings.

When asked how he felt about getting the start, Sosnowski said, “I just kind of treat everything the same, so it didn’t shock me.”

The middle matchup saw Wiley Hartley continue his run of solid outings, providing the Knights with 5 ⅔ innings of one-run ball – the one run coming against the final batter he faced with two outs in the 6^th.  A handful of Knight relievers came in following Hartley to finish things off as the UCF arms struck out 10 for a third straight game.

In the series finale, the Knights got an outing they’d been waiting for this season out of Dom Stagliano. Stags provided UCF with six shutout innings, allowing just four hits while striking out four and not walking anyone. Nine ground ball outs kept the infield defense active in this one as Stagliano kept the ball out of the air throughout the game.

“We take a little bit of something from each outing and then we gotta flush it, always get another opportunity to do better than the time before,” Dom stated after his outing.

Russell Sandefer and Alex Galvan were tasked with wrapping things up as the Knights secured the sweep over the Hawks to finish up their final non-conference weekend series of the 2025 campaign.

The Week Ahead

            UCF will hope to follow up a perfect week with a continuation of the current winning streak sitting at a season-best-tying six games, matching the mark set to begin the year. The Knights will play host to another major Floridian team before heading out northwest to begin conference play.

Miami Hurricanes (12-5) (Tuesday March 11, 6:00 PM, ESPN+)

Common Opponents:

• FAU (2-1 loss)
• Florida (2-1 series loss)

The Hurricanes are coming up to Orlando prior to their own start of conference play this weekend, and though they started 8-1 on the year, they’re sitting at .500 over their last eight with a pair of losses each to Florida and Connecticut.

As expected, Miami has themselves a solid lineup that will be tough to navigate, featuring seven players consistently in the lineup who are hitting at least .300. Shortstop Jake Ogden currently leads the ‘Canes in the triple-slash categories, tallying a .424/.487/.621 mark over 17 games, including seven extra-base hits (3 HR, 4 doubles) and a team-leading five stolen bases.

Third baseman Daniel Cuvet paces the squad with four home runs on the year and along with Ogden, DH Bobby Marsh and outfielder Max Galvin, top the team’s leaderboards with each having at least 17 RBI. Another infielder, Dorian Gonzalez Jr., has driven in 16 as well.

There is some swing-and-miss in Miami’s game, as the Hurricanes rank in the upper 3^rd of Division 1 baseball with 129 strikeouts offensively over their 17 games, so the Knight pitchers will try and take advantage of their aggressiveness.

One pitcher that Miami has consistently thrown out there to start midweeks so far has been Reese Lumpkin, a graduate transfer who currently holds a 1.88 ERA over 14 ⅓ innings, walking six and striking out 17 on the season.

Brigham Young University Cougars (10-5, 0-0 B-XII) (Thursday 13^th – Saturday 15^th, 4:00 PM, 5:00 PM, 3:00 PM, ESPN+)

The Knights head out to Provo, Utah to face BYU for the first time as conference foes. A quick shoutout to BYU Baseball as they may well have the best backdrop in the sport. That mountain view, just gorgeous.

The Cougars are coming off a four-game series win against a decent Stetson club (8-8) who UCF will face shortly after returning from Provo. BYU has won eight of their last 10 games with a series win against Cal State Northridge (2-10) and a sweep of Gonzaga (2-11).

Offense

BYU has some heavy hitters, there’s no getting around that. Of their players with at least 50 plate appearances, five of them are slugging over .600 on the year, with four players having already smashed at least four home runs in 2025.

Among those, outfielder Luke Anderson leads the Cougars with a 1.126 OPS and is second on the team with 18 RBI. He’s hitting .387 on the year, second only to fellow outfielder Crew McChesney (.389).

First baseman Cooper Vest paces the team with 19 RBI and is tied for the team lead with five home runs with fellow infielder Brock Watkins. Vest has eight doubles and the team’s only triple on the year to this point. Shortstop Ryder Robinson rounds out the Cougar group with at least four homers on the year.

The note was made earlier with the Hurricanes that they might be a bit aggressive at the plate as they’re in the top 3^rd of D1 Baseball in strikeouts offensively. BYU, however, is much more extreme, as their hitters are tied with fellow Big 12 team Cincinnati for having the 8^th-most strikeouts in the nation with 165.

Pitching

A trio of Cougars has made four starts thus far. Those four are Payton Gubler, Garrison Sumner, and Jaden Harris. With one exception (the Stetson series which began on a Wednesday), these three have been the starters for the first three games of each series BYU has played, so it stands to reason that this will continue.

Gubler, a sophomore right-hander, has been effective thus far with a 2.62 ERA over 24 innings, striking out 19 and allowing an opponent’s batting average of just .179. He has, however, walked 12 on the year, which is second on the team to Harris.

Harris, along with those walks, has been generally ineffective, putting up just 15 ⅔ innings in his four outings striking out just 10 and walking 13. His ERA sits at 8.04 thus far. Sumner’s ERA is similarly high, at 7.27, though has kept him walks down at just 7 over 17 ⅓ innings.

Following these starters, the Cougar Bullpen has a couple of formidable arms in the form of Justis Reiser (1.59 ERA, .056 batting average against) and Hayden Coon (12 strikeouts over 9 innings, 1.00 ERA). If the Knights can avoid these arms, they should be in solid shape.

Before We See Them

BYU does not have a midweek opponent prior to facing UCF! They will be well-rested entering this series, as their last games took place on Saturday, March 8^th.

Final Notes

At the time of writing, Provo is looking to be quite cold. Rain and snow are in the forecast during the days of the series, and this could play heavily into BYU’s advantage, given their familiarity with the cold.

UCF will have to remain strong mentally as they weather the elements, and it does appear that their mindset is solid heading into that series. As summarized by captain Dylan King, “we know it’s going to be a sucky environment, so we just have to Embrace the Suck.”