Baseball’s Season Ends in Tallahassee Regional Final

Three Florida teams entered Tallahassee’s Dick Howser Stadium on Sunday, but only one could advance to the Super Regionals.

While the UCF Knights Baseball team made it further in an NCAA Regional than it has in over a decade, getting a 5-2 win over Stetson in the afternoon to get to the regional final, it was once again beaten by Florida State in the regional final, putting a wrap on the 2024 season.

So, for the final time in 2024, let’s round the bases and examine how head coach Rich Wallace punctuated debut season as head coach:

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1st: No Quit

Before they could have another chance against the Seminoles, the Knights needed to settle their score against Stetson.

Starting pitcher Wiley Hartley might not have received a decision, but his career-high tying six-inning outing kept the Hatters close even after they retook the lead on a home run from All-Regional outfielder Kyle Jones in the third inning. The Campbell transfer allowed two runs on four hits and two walks and struck out five batters.

“We knew we had another opportunity this morning,” Hartley said. “Just wanted to get to the ninth and we did that.”

Stetson relief pitcher Nick Durgin, who faced a majority of UCF’s batters, kept the Knights in check during the middle section of the game, stranding a couple of runs in scoring position. However, once he vacated the mound for Cole Stallings midway through the seventh, the floodgates opened.

For the second time this weekend, Andrew Sundean pulled off pinch-hitting heroics to tie the game up with an RBI single. The very next at-bat, right fielder Jack Zyska gave the Knights the lead with a two-run shot over the left-field wall.

It was up to the bullpen to keep that lead and just like they did against Alabama on Friday, Dominic Castellano and Kris Sosnowski teamed up to finish the job, despite a near hour and a half-long weather delay.

Thanks to Castellano’s two innings, allowing no runs on three hits and striking out a batter, he was credited with the win to go a perfect 7-0 for the season. As for Sosnowski, he might have walked a batter, but he still earned his sixth save of the season after striking out two of four batters.

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2nd: Solid Start

The Knights got off to their first regional final appearance since 2012 with a bang, as Zyska picked up right where he left off from the Stetson game, hitting another homer to left field.

For the first time all weekend, UCF led Florida State, and for the first four innings, it stayed that way. Making his first career start, true freshman Tyler Kozera kept the Seminoles, off the board, allowing only one hit and two walks. He also hit two batters and struck out another.

With the Knights’ struggles to get things going offensively for the majority of the postseason, playing from the lead early was an ideal place for them to be. After being in a dead heat with Alabama and playing from behind against Florida State on Saturday and Stetson earlier that day, this was the first time they’ve been in that position all weekend.

Najer Victor entered the game from the bullpen and continued Kozera’s momentum, getting the final two outs of the fourth inning.

Then...

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3rd: Everything Falls Apart

Hitting with runners in scoring position has presented an issue for most of the postseason, and it reared its head again in the top of the fifth. The Knights have two runners in scoring position with none out. The next three batters: strikeout, Zyska intentionally walk to load the bases, double play, inning over.

UCF had the opportunity to get insurance on their lead and could not execute, giving Florida State an opening.

Once the Seminoles got their foot in the door, they ripped it open. Four multi-RBI hits, including two home runs. It was like watching a train wreck in slow motion, considering the length of the inning in real time due to the Knights making three pitching changes in this one inning.

“Same thing that happened the other night,” Wallace said. “We had a chance to get off the field and we don’t and they score nine.”

Sure, UCF put up two more runs. Anthony Calabro got an RBI single to add to his weekend highlight reel and Sundean hit his first home run since May 3rd, but the bottom of the fifth was where the game ended. The last four innings were a funeral march toward the inevitable.

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Home: “You Had my Curiosity, but Now You Have my Attention.”

The regional final, in a way, felt like a microcosm of the whole season. It began with unexpected promise, only for a mix of tough opponents and self-inflicted mistakes to be their Achilles heal.

“You can’t give an offense like that too many outs,” Wallace said.

The sting of the regional final is likely going to be felt for a little bit. No matter how successful a season a team has, having it end like that will take some time to move on from, especially when it looks like the team could have made it.

Wallace even vowed that, one day, a Knights team will make it.

“This program’s going to win one of these [regionals] and as happy as I’m going to be for that group, I’ll think back to this group that started it,’ Wallace said. “I’m looking forward to that day.”

However, that does not change the fact that UCF outperformed expectations this season, a step up from where they were in seasons past.

Wallace called his old boss, FSU head coach Link Jarrett, “the best coach in college baseball.” When it comes to seeing the progression of his old assistant in his first head coaching job, Jarrett harkened back to his and Wallace’s time at Notre Dame and their journey to get that program to Omaha.

“There’s some fires that you have to endure to get it right,” Jarrett said. “So, then I saw [Wallace] grow through the toughness and the difficulties of handling all the things that come at you when you have a difficult road.”

While Wallace has endured plenty of fires already, plenty more remain. There will be expectations now. This may not be 2017 anymore, but because of the legacy it had, Year 2 is when this program will truly try to exorcise the “almosts” of the late 2010s-early 2020s.

However, for once, after so many years, UCF baseball fans can end a season satisfied and, for now, that’s enough.

For more about the events of the weekend, check out Eric Lopez and Bryson Turner’s Knight Shift podcast episode about the regional:

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Knight of the Week

Jack Zyska

The Notre Dame transfer ended his college career with a bang on Sunday, two to be precise.

The right-fielder went 5-7 with four RBIs coming off a pair of two-run home runs, the first giving UCF the lead (and the win) against Stetson and the second getting UCF on the board in the regional final against Florida State, a lead they would hold for half the game.

The day culminated with him being the only UCF player named to the All-Regional Team.

“I mean, I wish we would have lasted longer obviously, but that’s why I came here,” Zyska said. “I wanted to be a part of making a run at the postseason, establishing this as a program that makes postseason runs beyond just me and this year.”

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Play of the Week

Andrew Williamson makes a diving catch in center field