UCF’s late rally comes up short in Senior Night loss to Kansas State
For five innings Friday night, Camden Wicker was as sharp as UCF could have asked for.
For one inning, the Knights looked like they might have another late comeback in them.
But Kansas State did enough damage in the seventh inning, and UCF’s rally stopped one run short in a 5-4 Senior Night loss to the Wildcats at John Euliano Park.
Kansas State evened the series at one game apiece, setting up a rubber match in Saturday’s 1 p.m. regular-season finale. UCF fell to 30-20 overall and 18-11 in Big 12 play, while Kansas State improved to 28-25 and 11-18 in league play.
The Knights trailed 5-0 entering the bottom of the seventh before scoring four runs and getting the tying run to second base. But UCF could not push across the equalizer, and Cohen Feser worked a clean ninth to earn the save for the Wildcats.
UCF coach Rich Wallace liked the response, but not the way the Knights got there.
“I’m proud of the fight,” Wallace said. “We just needed to adjust to the left-handed pitcher. I’ve seen that guy do that to a bunch of people. That’s on me. Obviously, I didn’t have them prepared enough to have a plan to execute against that guy. He got us out the same way for four and a half, five innings.
“That’s really what it came down to. Proud of the fight, but we’ve got to figure a guy out like that earlier than we did.”
Sheffield keeps UCF quiet early
Kansas State left-hander Lincoln Sheffield entered the night as one of the Wildcats’ top starters, and he pitched like it for most of his outing.
Sheffield held UCF scoreless through six innings before the Knights finally got to him in the seventh. He finished with 6.1 innings, allowing three runs on seven hits with two walks and six strikeouts. He improved to 7-3 on the season.
UCF did not go hitless early, but the Knights could not string together enough quality swings to put pressure on him.
They had a baserunner in the first when John Smith III walked, but Andrew Williamson and Zak Skinner both grounded into force plays. Landon Moran singled in the second. Cayden Gaskin singled and Austin Jacobs singled in the third. UCF put two more aboard in the sixth when Skinner and Javier Crespo delivered back-to-back two-out singles.
Each time, Sheffield escaped.
UCF finished with 10 hits and went 3-for-9 with runners in scoring position, but all of that damage came too late for the Knights to complete the comeback.
“We just didn’t do enough offensively in the first six innings,” Wallace said.
Wicker perfect through five, then K-State breaks through
For most of the night, Wicker looked like he might outduel Sheffield.
The UCF right-hander retired the first 15 batters he faced and carried a perfect game into the sixth inning. He was helped by several sharp defensive plays behind him, including a standout play at first base by Landon Moran, who made a diving stop and flipped to Wicker covering the bag.
Wicker also got help from freshman shortstop Jordan Lodise, who made multiple plays, and Skinner, who handled a tough pop-up behind the plate.
“That’s a really good play, like you said, on both ends,” Wallace said of Moran and Wicker. “Landon to get to it, to deliver that, and Cam, 6-foot-7, running across the field and catching it and holding the bag. Lodise had a couple of really good plays. Skinner had a really tough catch on a pop fly in that little area that’s tough.
“The defense was great. The pitching was good enough to win.”
Skinner said Moran’s play caught him by surprise.
“It was insane,” Skinner said. “I honestly thought it was a double down the line. I didn’t think we had a chance. I was pretty annoyed when I was watching it slowly roll. But somehow he got it and got the out. It was amazing. It really was.”
The game changed in the sixth.
Ty Smolinski opened the inning with a solo home run to right field, breaking up Wicker’s perfect game and giving Kansas State a 1-0 lead. Grant Gallagher followed with a double, but Wicker stranded him at third to keep the deficit at one.
The seventh got away from UCF.
Dee Kennedy was hit by a pitch to start the inning. Bear Madliak moved him to second with a groundout, and AJ Evasco followed with a two-run homer to right to make it 3-0. Carlos Vasquez singled, and Smolinski delivered again, blasting his second home run of the night — a two-run shot — to push Kansas State’s lead to 5-0.
Wicker finished with 6.1 innings, allowing five runs on five hits with no walks and three strikeouts. All five Kansas State runs came on three home runs.
“He was on it, and I think he just ran out of gas,” Wallace said. “There were some competitive pitches in there. The mistakes he did throw, they made him pay for it. But he was elite stuff through five.”
Knights nearly answer with another seventh-inning rally
UCF had rallied with five runs in the seventh inning Thursday night to beat Kansas State 10-6.
The Knights nearly did it again Friday.
Gaskin started the bottom of the seventh with a single, and Lodise walked. Jacobs followed with an RBI single through the left side, scoring Gaskin and cutting the deficit to 5-1.
After DeAmez Ross lined out, Kansas State went to the bullpen for Aaron Arnold. Smith reached on a fielder’s choice, with Lodise advancing to third and Jacobs forced out at second. Williamson then delivered UCF’s biggest swing of the night, driving a two-run double to left field to score Lodise and Smith and trim the deficit to 5-3.
Skinner followed with an RBI single up the middle, bringing in Williamson and making it 5-4. Crespo singled to move Skinner into scoring position, but Moran flied out to left to end the inning.
The Knights had life, but they never scored again.
Gaskin, Lodise and Jacobs were retired in order in the eighth. Ross, Smith and Williamson went down in order in the ninth.
Wallace said he felt UCF was close.
“Obviously, it’s two of the better pitchers in the league going at each other, and you like that,” Wallace said. “I think both sides played really good defense. That was an exciting game.
“I felt like we were one swing away the whole time. I think up until Willie popped that ball up, our whole dugout thought we were going to win. Just got to deal with it. That’s baseball, and come back tomorrow and play.”
Bullpen keeps UCF within reach
After Wicker exited in the seventh, freshman Zach Malvasio helped settle things down.
Malvasio struck out the first two batters he faced to finish the seventh, then struck out Nick English to start the eighth. Shintaro Inoue singled, and UCF went to Anthony Lariz.
Lariz allowed a single to Kennedy, putting two runners on with one out and Kansas State threatening to expand the lead. But Lariz struck out Madliak and got Evasco to foul out to left to end the threat.
Lariz then worked a clean ninth inning, giving UCF a chance to rally in the bottom half.
“I thought Malvasio’s stuff was really good,” Wallace said. “He’s a guy who’s not going to be a full-time pitcher. He’s going to be a two-way guy for us, but he’s learning how to do this at this level. There were some really good pitches in there. He came out of the bullpen throwing sliders for strikes — and a good slider — and then Lariz pitches out of the jam against the meat of their order.”
Skinner reflects on Senior Night
The loss came on a night when UCF honored 14 seniors before the game, including Skinner, Smith, Ross, Moran, Crespo, Gaskin, JD Rogers, Noah Rabin, Mason Wilson, Chandler Dorsey, Roman Kimball, Kevin Schoneboom, Kris Sosnowski and Braden Calise.
Skinner went 2-for-4 with an RBI in his Senior Night game, but he said the result kept the night from being what UCF wanted.
“I’m happy. I think I hit the ball all right. I caught well. I played the game well,” Skinner said. “But at the end of the day, it’s a team game. We lost. We didn’t get the result we wanted, so we’re not happy.”
Skinner, a native of Australia who transferred to UCF for his final season, said the year has meant a lot to him after he came close to moving on from baseball.
“It’s been amazing,” Skinner said. “This point last year, I was pretty close to getting ready to just go to work, get a job. Being able to find a way to get another year and come here and be able to play with the guys I’ve played with — even just being out here and on the field every day — I feel like a kid. I don’t feel like I’ve got to take life too seriously. I’m loving it.
“Every opportunity, every day, I really, really loved, and I’m going to remember it for the rest of my life.”
Wallace called the senior class a special group, starting with Sosnowski, one of the holdovers in the program.
“You start with Sosnowski, a guy who, when I got here, he could have left,” Wallace said. “In the world of today’s college baseball, he could leave every year, and that guy’s a true Knight — a leader on and off the field, in the classroom, all of it. Absolute warrior for us.
“That group’s really special. DeAmez Ross, I’ve coached him three out of his four years. You can go up and down that list. And the guys that came in for the one year, too, I think they’ve bought into everything we’ve been trying to do. They’ve bought into UCF on the front of their chest meaning something.”
Wallace said it does not matter how long a player has been in the program.
“When they sign up here, I tell them I’m going to treat them like they’re my son,” Wallace said. “I don’t care if they’re here for 10 months or four years. Once they sign up and they put their heart and soul in this program, they’re a Knight for life.”
One more regular-season chance
UCF will close the regular season Saturday afternoon with a chance to win its seventh Big 12 series of the season.
Regardless of tomorrow’s outcome, the Knights have secured no worse than the No. 4 seed in next week’s Big 12 Tournament and will receive a double-bye into the quarterfinal round.
“My plan is what we talk about every week,” Wallace said. “We’re going after tomorrow. We’ve got one last shot at home. We’re going to do everything we can to win a game and win a series to finish out the year.”
Wallace said he wants the offense that showed up late Friday to carry into the finale from the first pitch.
“I want to see the offensive intensity and maturity that we saw for the last three innings show up from pitch one,” Wallace said. “Even in the eighth, if you go through that eighth, after we scored the runs, Cayden Gaskin steps on the ball, Lodise steps on the ball. There were some really good swings in there. I think Willie just missed that one.
“That stuff’s got to carry over. I know it was a tough loss, one swing away, but there were some positives in there we can take to tomorrow and finish it off the right way.”
