UCF Baseball is set to start their third season under head coach Greg Lovelady as they welcome the Siena Saints in tonight’s opener. Lovelady is 75-43 after two seasons with the Knights including an NCAA tournament bid in his first season.

UCF lost a lot of key players from last year’s team including Rylan Thomas, JJ Montgomery and Bryce Tucker, to name a few. In addition to losing key players, pitching coach Justin Parker took a new job with Indiana University. Nick Otte was hired as the new pitching coach this past July.

With all of the changes, who can we expect to see start for the Knights?

Projected Starters

In the Field

C: Anthony George

1B: Dallas Beaver

2B: Matthew Mika

SS: Brandon Hernandez

3B: Griffin Bernardo

LF: Tyler Osik

CF: Ray Alejo

RF: Chandler Robertson

DH: Dalton Wingo

On the Mound

SP: Grant Schuermann

SP: Trevor Holloway

SP: Jordan Spicer

CL: Garrett Westberg

Ace Chris Williams is currently serving a nine-game suspension but you can expect him to take over the Friday night starting role once he returns. This opening weekend against Siena will serve as an audition to see who will keep those last two weekend starting spots.

With 17 new players on the team, only time will tell if they have what it takes to make it back to the postseason. One positive is starting the season off against Siena as UCF owns a 54-4 all-time record against the Saints. I’m expecting the Knights to start off hot out of the gate.