ORLANDO — The UCF baseball team (18-13, 3-9 Big 12) did a lot of good things over the weekend, but the power of visiting Kansas (27-6, 9-3 Big 12) proved to be more than the Knights could overcome as they were swept in the 3-game Big 12 Conference series at John Euliano Park.
The Black and Gold held a 2-1 lead going into the fifth inning in Friday’s series opener, but the No. 23 ranked Jayhawks, behind a pair of home runs from first baseman Brady Ballinger, would score the final eight runs of the game, including five in the top of the ninth, to pull out a 9-2 victory.
Lex Boedicker and Braden Calise led the way offensively for UCF recording two hits each. Boedicker finished with 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored.
Ballinger paced the visitors, going 3-for-5 with two home runs, three RBI and two runs scored.
Saturday’s contest was a back-and-forth slugfest with Kansas scoring two runs in the top of the ninth inning to pull out a 10-9 triumph.
The lead changed hands five times, including three times over the final three innings.
The Knights took a 4-0 lead on RBI singles from Boedicker, Antonio Jimenez and Evian Espinal and an error after two innings, but the Jayhawks came back to take a 6-4 lead on the strength of a 5-run fourth inning on home runs from Derek Cerda, Michael Brooks and Brady Counsell, the son of Chicago Cubs manager Craig Counsell.
UCF would rally to tie the game in the in the fifth inning on a Jimenez home run and a throwing error and then take an 8-6 lead in the seventh inning on back-to-back squeeze bunt singles from DeAmez Ross and Jimenez.
The lead was short-lived as Kansas got home runs from Brooks and Counsell in the eighth to tie it at 8-8, before the Knights responded again, taking a 9-8 lead in the eighth inning on a clutch 2-out double into the right field corner by Dylan King.
But once again, UCF could not hold the lead, as the Jayhawks opened the ninth with a single and a double before tying the game on a ground out and scoring what proved to be the game-winning run on a two-out single by Daniel Osorio.
Jimenez finished the game 3-for-6 with the home run, two runs scored and three RBI, while Boedicker and Chase Krewson chipped in with two hits each.
Sunday’s final started extremely strange, with Kansas sending nine batters to the plate and scoring four runs in the top of the first inning on the strength of Jackson Hauge’s 14th home run of the season, a 3-run shot, and UCF answered right back with three runs in the bottom of the first inning on a 2-run double by Boedicker and an Andrew Sundean grounder that lasted 34-minutes.
But the Jayhawks stayed red-hot at the plate scoring a single run in the second inning and four more runs in each of the third and fourth innings to build a 13-3 lead.
The Black and Gold avoided getting run-ruled (10 run lead after seven innings) by scoring a run in the bottom of the fourth inning, but that would be the last scoring of the day, as Kansas prevailed, 13-4.
Ross had a big game, going 3-for-4 with a double, a run scored and an RBI and Boedicker stayed hit, going 2-for-4 with a double and two RBI.
The Jayhawks had the bats booming all weekend, blasting 10 home run to get to 73 on the season, just two round trippers short on the school record for a season.
Next Up:
UCF was in Jacksonville to face North Florida at Harmon Stadium on Dusty Rhodes Field on Tuesday and will travel to Manhattan, Kansas, to face No. 22 Kansas State this weekend. The games at Tointon Family Stadium will begin at 7 p.m. on Friday, 5 p.m. on Saturday and 2 p.m. on Sunday and will be streamed on ESPN+, while live audio will be available by visiting UCFKnights.com. Saturday’s contest will also be carried by FM 96.9 The Game on the radio. Live stats can also be followed at ucf.statbroadcast.com.
