UCF Series - We Won the Series 2-1

C

Chop

10,000+ Posts
We have never played this team at baseball before.

PROBABLE PITCHING MATCHUPS
FRIDAY–Texas RHP Max Grubbs (4-4, 3.70) vs. UCF RHP Ben Vespi (3-2, 4.45)
SATURDAY–Texas LHP Ace Whitehead (4-0, 3.73) vs. UCF RHP Dom Stagliano (2-3, 4.07)
SUNDAY–Texas RHP Lebarron Johnson Jr. (2-4, 5.82) vs. UCF TBA

Live from Orlando

The welcoming committee:

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Knights to Host No. 18 Texas in Final Big 12 Home Series

Head UCF coach Rich Wallace said. “They are an offensive heavy team. We are going to have to pitch well to keep us in the game. It’s going to come down to us pitching, defending, and executing and being timely on offense for us to come out on top.”

With just two conference series remaining, the Knights will enter the weekend with a 30-15 overall record and currently in ninth place in the Big 12 standings with an 11-12 league mark. The top 10 teams will advance to the 2024 Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship that will be held May 21-25 at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas.

UCF has won four straight contests after sweeping Houston in a rain-shortened two-game league series on the road last weekend as well as a pair of midweek wins over in-state foe North Florida. The series win over Houston marked the Black and Gold’s fifth Big 12 series victory of the season.

Pitching was key at Houston last weekend, as senior Ben Vespi and junior Dom Stagliano both had strong starts against the Cougars. In Friday’s opener, Vespi tied a career-high by going 7.0 innings and gave up just one run on two hits while striking out five. Stagliano then followed that up with 5.2 innings of no-hit baseball. He finished allowing three runs on one hit while striking out seven over 5.2 innings of work.
 
They have a pretty good bullpen:

The bullpen has been key during UCF’s current four-game winning streak, as it has allowed just one earned run (three total) on 10 hits over 17.1 innings while striking out 24 batters. The ‘pen has also posted a 3-0 record with four saves and an impressive 0.52 ERA during the stretch. Sosnowski, Dominic Castellano, Tyler Kozera and Najer Victor have all posted perfect 0.00 earned run averages, while Kramer has gone 2-0 with a 2.45 ERA.

Matt Prevesk has led the Knights over the past four games by hitting .500 with a triple and four runs scored. Kluska is next with a .333 average, a double, four RBIs and two runs scored, while Danny Neri too has hit .333 with two runs batted in and four runs scored.

On the season, the junior outfielder Prevesk paces the offense with a .360 batting average. He also has 14 extra-base hits, 35 runs scored and 29 RBIs. Senior Jack Zyska is next with a .319 average and leads the team with 10 homers, 11 doubles, 40 runs batted in, 40 runs scored, and a 1.002 OPS. Fellow senior Andrew Brait is next with a .285 average and 32 runs scored. The southpaw Castellano leads the pitching staff with a 5-0 record and a 2.58 ERA. Stagliano fronts the starting rotation with a 4.07 ERA, while Vespi holds a 3-2 record and a team-high 55 strikeouts over 58.2 innings.
 
Top 35 in the RPI

UCF holds the fourth highest RPI in the Big 12 Conference, as it enters the week with the nation’s 32nd-best RPI. The Knights have been ranked as high as third nationally in the RPI this year, as they were ranked No. 3 in that category in early March. UCF was also ranked in the Top 25 for the first two weeks of April and made it as high as No. 16 by the NCBWA and No. 17 by D1Baseball and Perfect Game on the April 8 poll. It marked the first time that the Knights had been in the Top 25 since February of 2021.
 
Official Website of UCF Athletics

Very so-so stats on offense for the Knights.

Of their players with significant at-bats, they only have 2 guys batting over 0.300, and 2 guys with an OPS North of 0.900. They only have 51 homeruns on the year. Their #8 and #9 batters are probably better than our #8 and #9 batters, although Porter Brown's homerun totals make that a good argument.
 
Official Website of UCF Athletics

Their pitching numbers look good. This is a pitching and defense team. Fairly low ERAs, and very low WHIPs. Yeah, they win with their pitching.

Team ERA 4.17
Team WHIP 1.23

Notably better than our overall pitching numbers this year.
 
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Chop said:
Official Website of UCF Athletics

Very so-so stats on offense for the Knights.

Of their players with significant at-bats, they only have 2 guys batting over 0.300, and 2 guys with an OPS North of 0.900. They only have 51 homeruns on the year. Their #8 and #9 batters are probably better than our #8 and #9 batters, although Porter Brown's homerun totals make that a good argument.
Click to expand...

Sometimes our pitching helps teams really boost those batting stats. I am not sure that LBJ should be starting again. The choices for Sunday starter are pretty slim right now, but the last 2 games he has pitched 7.1 innings and given up 9 runs (9 earned) and 16 hits. His walks didn't kill him, but he only had 5 strikeouts.

Teams are batting just over .300 against LBJ for the season and his ERA is up to 5.82. It is worse in conference- teams are batting .343 against him and his ERA is 8.53. The only other pitchers with significant innings in conference are Boehm and Duplantier, but several of the middle relievers have much better stats than LBJ (although still not necessarily stellar). Maybe LBJ is Pierce's best option, but it is disappointing.
 
Bottom of the first

walk

That last ball was on the inside corner of the plate. This ump must have a skinny zone.
 
Jack O’Dowd (Captain)

grounds out to second. Tricky hop but the Florida man fields it.

to the bottom of the second

1-1
 
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