Heading into Friday’s game against Baylor, UCF knew what was on the line: a trip to Dallas and a ticket to the Big-12 Tournament. While a win wouldn’t guarantee them a spot, a loss would knock UCF out if BYU came out victorious against Texas Tech.
The Knights seemed to rise to the opportunity early in the ballgame, taking a commanding three run lead through five innings. Those three runs consisted of two home runs from Antonio Jimenez and Andrew Williamson.
Williams has been on a tear for UCF, hitting for the cycle in the Knights’ previous series against Texas Tech. In that series, he also hit three home runs and was the spark for UCF. Friday, he was responsible for half of UCF’s runs. He had two hits in four at-bats, making him the only Knight to record multiple hits.
Unfortunately, his heroics weren’t enough to will UCF to victory as they lost 5-4, the same score as their first game against Baylor.
Instead of waiting until the ninth inning to takeover, the Bears decided to flip the nine upside down and make it a six, scoring four runs in the inning including an RBI double from Wesley Jordan followed up by a two run shot from Pearson Riebock. Baylor recorded four of their 10 hits in the sixth and scored all but one of their total runs in the inning.
When asked about Sunday’s game, UCF coach Rich Wallace said “You got one more chance at it, that’s all I know. We got one more chance to come out here tomorrow and compete your tail off and play with your brothers.”
He also shared this sentiment: “Three of the most upsetting moments in my life were taking this jersey off for the last time. We need to cherish at least one more shot at putting this thing on and go down there as a family and compete our tails off.”
The Knights face Baylor one last time tomorrow at 12:00 pm.