UCF falls 9-3 to Cincinnati, setting up Sunday rubber match
A night after shutting down Cincinnati 7-1 in the opener, the Knights couldn’t replicate that formula on Saturday, falling 9-3 at John Euliano Park as the Bearcats took advantage of too many free baserunners and broke the game open with a five-run eighth inning. Cincinnati improved to 26-15 overall and 7-10 in Big 12 play, while UCF dropped to 21-14 and 11-6 in the league.
Rich Wallace didn’t have to search long for the difference.
“As good as we played yesterday on the pitching and defensive side, today was probably the opposite,” Wallace said. “It was going to be a really good college baseball game until that five-run eighth. We gave up two big innings, and that’s the difference. It’s going to be hard to win college baseball games when you walk nine and hit four. It’s just going to be tough.”
Free passes proved too costly
UCF’s staff issued 10 walks, hit four more batters and needed eight pitchers to get through the night. Cincinnati, a club that entered the weekend leading the Big 12 in hit-by-pitches, stolen bases and triples while building much of its identity around pressure offense, took full advantage. The Bearcats finished 6-for-16 with runners in scoring position and left 15 men on base, but they continually created traffic until UCF finally cracked.
Matt Sauser, slowly working his way back from injury, lasted 4.0 innings and allowed four runs on five hits with three walks and four strikeouts. Wallace said Sauser’s velocity was fine, but the command was not. He also pointed to the pivotal fourth inning, when Sauser was one strike away from escaping before No. 9 hitter Conlan Daniel launched a three-run homer to left-center.
“His velocity was holding, it was just the command wasn’t where it normally needs to be,” Wallace said. “He’s one pitch away from getting out of that inning with two strikes and two outs to the nine-hole guy, and a guy puts a really good swing on a pitch he probably wants back.”
Cincinnati seized control in the middle innings
After both teams traded runs in the first — Derrick Pitts opened the scoring for Cincinnati with an RBI double, and Andrew Williamson answered immediately with a 418-foot solo homer to right — the game stayed within reach for UCF until Daniel’s blast in the fourth made it 4-1.
To UCF’s credit, the bullpen briefly kept the Knights in it. Kevin Schoneboom worked out of a fifth-inning jam after Sauser issued back-to-back walks, and Max Murray followed with 1.2 innings while keeping Cincinnati off the board. That gave UCF a window, and John Smith III trimmed the deficit to 4-2 with a two-out solo homer in the sixth.
But the game unraveled in the eighth. Charlie Niehaus reached and advanced to second on Javier Crespo’s throwing error, Daniel followed with a single, and Cincinnati never let UCF reset. Jackson Smith delivered a sacrifice bunt RBI, Pitts drew a bases-loaded walk, Jack Natili added a sac fly, and Enzo Infelise and Christian Mitchelle followed with RBI singles. What had been a two-run game suddenly became a 9-2 hole.
Wallace said the Knights were trying to balance the moment with the reality of having another game less than 14 hours later, which factored into not extending top bullpen options such as Kris Sosnowski and Evan Jones in that spot.
“I think you’ve got some freshmen out there figuring this thing out,” Wallace said. “In that situation, you really didn’t want to go to Sosnowski or Jones and ask them to do that when we’ve got a game in about 13, 14 hours. You’re just hoping those freshmen will learn from this.”
Three home runs, but not enough offense around them
UCF did get power production, but almost nothing else offensively.
Williamson’s first-inning homer was his 10th of the season, Smith added his sixth in the sixth, and JD Rogers came off the bench to launch his first homer of the year in the ninth. Outside of those swings, though, the Knights managed just three other hits, went 0-for-2 with runners in scoring position and left only three runners on base because they rarely sustained anything. Cincinnati starter Logan Knight, who entered the weekend coming off a seven-shutout-inning outing against Baylor, gave the Bearcats exactly what they needed with 6.0 innings of two-run ball before Adam Brouwer handled the final three innings for the save.
Wallace said there were a few quality at-bats, but not enough pressure put together inning after inning.
“Their guy was executing pitches at a high level,” Wallace said. “I thought Crespo’s at-bats were good. Willy had the homer. John Smith had the homer. JD Rogers had the other. There were a couple quality at-bats. There was really nothing stretched and stacked together. They weren’t consistent enough.”
Dorsey out for the year
After the game, Wallace confirmed that Chandler Dorsey is out for the season. UCF had high hopes for the LSU transfer, but he struggled mightily with command. He left the Columbia game last month with an apparent injury. His loss adds to an already depleted injured pitching group that includes Joey Trombley, Michael Gillen and Braden Smith.
“You look around college baseball — they’re everywhere,” Wallace said of the injuries. “Fortunately, we have enough depth where I think we can survive. We just have to be creative with it, and when we’ve got a chance to win games, we’ve got to go win them.”
Rubber match up next
UCF will now turn to Camden Wicker in Sunday’s rubber match, with Wallace indicating Sosnowski, Jones, Schoneboom and Matthew Heyl should all still be available in some capacity. After a night in which Cincinnati’s style wore the Knights down, Wallace made it clear what he wants to see from his team in the finale.
“Hopefully that kind of angers you,” Wallace said. “On a Saturday night in your home ballpark, to play like that — if we’ve got the team that I think we have, that should anger them, and they should come ready to play tomorrow and do something about it.”
