The UCF Knights lost to the No. 10 West Virginia Mountaineers 4-3 on Sunday afternoon. This loss marks three straight for UCF, as they lose their fifth Big XII series and third sweep of the season.
“We played well enough to have a chance to win, not well enough to beat them,” UCF coach Rich Wallace said. “If you’re gonna play a team like that, and you expect to end up on the winning side, you gotta take your opportunities and beat them. They’re not just gonna roll over and let you win one.”
A two-run double in the top of the fifth inning by Jace Rinehart pushed the Mountaineers ahead for the lead, one they never relinquished.
“That was really the difference in the ball game,” Wallace said. “We missed our opportunities, and that guy pitched well.”
https://twitter.com/WVUBaseball/status/1916561468062916654
DeAmez Ross finished out the series strong, as he went 4-for-5, hitting two doubles and collecting two RBI. Against the Mountaineers this weekend, Ross hit 9-for-11 and drew two walks, while also getting four RBI. He was the only Knight with multiple hits in every game of the series.
“The pitch selection was really good for [Ross],” Wallace said. “If you put a spray chart out there where his hits were, it was probably line to line. There were some extra-base hits in there, and there were some really great two strike at-bats where he got himself back in the count and delivered some hits. I thought he played outstanding all weekend.”
Arguably the highlight of the day came when he robbed what would have been a tying home run. This allowed the Knights to preserve the lead through the fourth inning.
The pitching for both teams was efficient, as there were only four combined pitchers, a stark contrast to Saturday’s 14. West Virginia’s Jack Kartsonas went 6.2 innings, surrendering nine hits but only giving up two runs. For UCF, sophomore Matt Sauser started his second-straight weekend, going 4.2 innings and allowing four runs.
“[Kartsonas] pitched well,” Wallace said. “We had a bunch of opportunities, and we let him wiggle out of some jams. We were only one swing away the whole day.”
The relievers were even better. Dominic Castellano came in relief of Sauser and only allowed a single hit in 4.1 innings of work. Meanwhile, Ben McDougal retired all seven batters he faced, securing the save for the Mountaineers.
“I thought I pitched well enough to give the guys a chance,” Castellano said. “Unfortunately, we just weren’t able to pull through.”
Despite Castellano’s shutdown performance in the back half of the game, the Knights offense was unable to erase the deficit. UCF only reached base four times after losing the lead, with the final run coming in the bottom of the sixth off of a Ross single.
The Knights left nine runners on base, going 4-for-14 when runners were in scoring position. On the other end, the Mountaineers only stranded four runners, going 2-for-4 with RISP.
This was a trend during the three-game set in John Euliano Park. UCF stranded a total of 36 runners on base, hitting 13-for-53 with runners on second or third. In bases-loaded situations, the Knights went 0-for-6, but drew two walks to score runs in Saturday’s game.
“When the intensity of the at-bat ratchets up a little bit, and the bases are loaded, the other guy’s making the best pitches he can,” Wallace said. ‘You gotta match that with, not effort offensively, you gotta match it with pitch selection. Plan and then executed what you’re trying to do. We gotta do a better job of coaching that up and getting a better at-bat.”
West Virginia was able to capitalize on these situations, which made the difference. The Mountaineers only stranded 13, batting 8-for-20 with runners in scoring position. They only loaded the bases twice, but were perfect in both instances.
Next Up
After dropping the series to the best team in the Big XII, UCF will have a game at home against UNF before heading on a seven game road trip. The Ospreys shocked the Knights when they beat them in Jacksonville earlier this month, and will look to even the season series on Tuesday.
“Forget who we play, it doesn’t really matter; that’s a good team and I don’t care who it is,” Wallace said. ”They’ve got a chance to come out here on Tuesday night at home and play with UCF on our chest and there’s a standard to that. We’ve got to continue to improve.”
First pitch against the Ospreys is set for 6:00 pm on Apr. 29.