The UCF Knights lost against the No. 25 TCU Horned Frogs 6-1 in John Euliano Park on Thursday night. The Knights’ lone run came off a sac-fly in the bottom of the fourth. Thursday’s game marked the first time TCU and UCF played against each other in baseball since February of 2007.
The Knights (20-17, 4-12) are now last place in the standings. Meanwhile, the Horned Frogs (29-10, 12-4) notched a Big XII-leading 12th conference win. UCF, who made the Tallahassee Regional just a season ago, has had a rough start to their 2025 campaign.
The first two innings were fairly quiet in Orlando. UCF’s Camden Wicker gathered two strikeouts in the first, and forced a 1-2-3 inning in the top of the second.
For TCU, Tommy LaPour also struck out two in the bottom of the first, with the other out being a circus catch by left-fielder Isaac Cadena. The second was much of the same, as LaPour made quick work of his batters.
The third inning flashed the first bit of action. Wicker got himself into a jam and loaded the bases with no outs. Sawyer Strosnider grounded out into a double play, but Noah Traeger was able to score to make it 1-0 TCU.
Directly following the double play, second baseman Cole Cramer hit a single to drive in another run to make it 2-0. Wicker hit a batter, then balked to put runners on second and third. With a chance to break the game wide open, TCU’s Chase Brunson grounded out to end the frame.
In the bottom of the third, UCF’s leadoff hitter, DeAmez Ross, collected their first hit of the night with a deep double. However, the next batter lined out to first base and ended the inning.
Wicker regathered himself the next inning, completing another 1-2-3 inning. The frame ended on a wild catch by right fielder Andrew Williamson, as he flipped over the fence to complete the play.
“I knew it was going to be close,” Williamson said. “I haven’t done that before. I’ve been close. Kids were hovering over me and it was nice for everyone to check in on me.”
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Williamson was the first man up to bat in the fourth, and LaPour’s pitch missed its location and hit him. Shortstop Antonio Jimenez shot a single up the middle the next at-bat, sending Williamson to third. Lex Boedicker flew out to left, and this allowed Williamson to score UCF’s first and only run of the game.
The fifth featured hitless frames by both Wicker and LaPour, keeping the score to within one for the Knights.
“[Wicker] is gonna be a really good starting pitcher for us in this league,” UCF coach Rich Wallace said. “A younger kid that hasn’t done it on this stage yet until the last couple of weeks. He wiggled through some traffic, commanded four pitches against a really good lineup. We have him miss some bats, gave us a shot to win. Would I like him to get a little more efficient earlier in the game so we can extend them a little longer? Yes, I’m sure he’d love that, but I thought he competed and gave his team a chance to win.”
After five innings of solid work, Wicker was pulled for sophomore reliever Isaac Williams. Williams proceeded to give up a single and then a deep shot to Brunson to make the score 4-1 TCU. He was able to produce two flyouts to end his night.
In the seventh, Kevin Schoneboom came in for the Knights. Schoneboom loaded the bases with two outs, where freshman pitcher/first baseman Noah Franco hit a single up the middle to score two more for TCU. This made the score 6-1 through the seventh inning stretch.
LaPour continued his dominant game in the sixth and seventh, as he was able to produce six quick outs. His night was over afterwards, not allowing an earned run while recording four strikeouts. From there, both clubs kept the score the same, which ended in a TCU win.
The Knights struggled to score runners Thursday night with batters going 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position. On the flip side, the Horned Frogs went 3-for-7 when their runners were on second or third.
Next Up
UCF will look to bounce back against TCU on Friday night to split the series going into Saturday. Sophomore Russell Sandefer will be on the bump for the Knights, making his second start of the season. Sandefer sports a 1.44 ERA through 13 appearances, having a team-best 0.92 WHIP as well.
“That’s a really good team,” Coach Wallace said. “I think when you evaluate the game as a whole, if we play a little bit better and some spots, we’re right in that thing. If they don’t think that we can come back and do those things tomorrow,I told them not to come back to the park because if we can match up with them, we can do some stuff. They are really good, but we can play with them and we can win.”
First pitch against the Horned Frogs is set for 6:00 p.m Friday.