UCF, Bethune-Cookman and Stetson all played on the road over the weekend, and two of them won their respective series despite the lack of home-field advantage.
No. 23 UCF beat No. 11 West Virginia in two out of three games to put itself in a position to rise in the next set of polls after making its first appearance since March 2025 a week ago.
Bethune-Cookman continued its SWAC success with a series victory over Southern in New Orleans, complete with a sweep of a doubleheader on April 4.
Stetson was the only local Division I baseball program to lose its respective series, falling to Atlantic Sun foe Jacksonville two games to one.
The wins propelled UCF and Bethune-Cookman to first place in their respective conferences. Here’s how they did it.
UCF takes 2 of 3 from West Virginia
UCF marched into Morgantown, West Virginia, and showed why it was ranked by D1Baseball and Perfect Game for the first time in more than a year.
The Knights won Games 1 and 3 to claim a three-game series at No. 11 West Virginia beginning on April 3 and ending on April 5. UCF nearly had the sweep against a Mountaineers team that was vying for a spot in the top 10, but a West Virginia rally forced a deciding match on Easter Sunday.
Andrew Williamson led the Knights to a 5-0 shutout in the first outing between the two ranked squads with a 3-for-4 performance at the plate. The 20-year-old outfielder and MLB Draft prospect raked two solo home runs, the first to center field and the second down the left-field line.
DeAmez Ross also batted in two runs during his 2-for-4 evening.
Braden Smith got the start for the Knights but only pitched one inning before he was forced to leave the game after a comebacker hit him in the face. He was transported to the hospital but had been discharged by mid-Saturday afternoon, per head coach Rich Wallace on the ESPN+ broadcast.
Freshman Max Murray pitched the next three innings and only allowed one hit to earn his second win of the season.
It appeared UCF wouldn’t need Sunday’s game to win the series for the majority of Saturday. The Knights led 10-2 at one point after a three-run fourth inning, three-run fifth and four-run sixth.
But West Virginia had other plans.
The Mountaineers scored two in the bottom of the sixth on a two-run shot from Matt Ineich to left field. West Virginia added three more in the seventh from an Armani Guzman single and a Gavin Kelly double to trail 10-7.
Still, the Mountaineers needed at least three runs in the bottom of the ninth to force extra innings after both teams went scoreless in the eighth. But West Virginia overachieved, and extra innings wouldn’t be needed.
Ineich scored two more runs on a double from Williamson in right field with one out, and he advanced to second base himself as the winning run. Two batters later, Matthew Graveline hit a two-out walkoff single to score Paul Schoenfield from third and Ineich from second to tie the series.
The Game 2 dramatics didn’t bleed into the series-deciding Game 3, and the Knights stymied the Mountaineers in similar fashion as Game 1, winning 5-1 with a four-run top of the sixth.
Camden Wicker got the win for UCF after pitching seven innings, only allowing three hits and one earned run with six strikeouts.
Williamson batted 2 for 3 with his third solo home run of the series and ninth overall on the season.
The win improved the Knights to 20-9 overall and an outright Big 12-best 10-2 record.
Bethune-Cookman wins 2 of 3 against Southern
The Wildcats are 22-10 after winning a three-game series 2-1 against Southern on April 3 and 4.
Southern beat Bethune-Cookman 7-3 in Game 1 with two RBIs each from Jaylon Lucky, Xavier Bradley and Kenyon Hughes. The Jaguars led 3-1 after the second inning, and a four-run seventh inning sealed the Wildcats’ fate.
Bobby Spencer won on the bump with eight strikeouts and two earned runs in seven innings.
But B-CU won back-to-back games during Saturday’s doubleheader to earn a series victory.
Pitcher Edwin Sanchez led the Wildcats to a 6-3 win by allowing just one earned run in seven innings. Bethune-Cookman’s entire pitching staff, which also included David Morrissey and Justin Morales, combined for zero strikeouts but kept Southern’s bats out of play.
Bethune-Cookman’s Andrey Martinez and Christopher Watson both homered in the victory, and designated hitter Jose Fernandez finished with three RBIs.
Hours later, the Wildcats scored 12 runs on 11 hits to defeat the Jaguars 12-7 and steal the series.
Watson, Maikol Lucena, Jeter Polledo and Erick Almonte all recorded at least two RBIs, with Almonte’s three runs batted in leading the charge. Watson also recorded his second homer of the afternoon with a solo shot to left field in the top of the eighth.
B-CU led 11-1 at one point after scoring two in the seventh inning, but Southern scored three in the bottom of the seventh and eighth innings.
The doubleheader victories put the Wildcats in a three-way tie for the SWAC lead at 10-2 with Texas Southern and rival Florida A&M. While they don’t have the outright lead, they’re the only team in the conference with more than 20 wins with Texas Southern, Florida A&M and Arkansas-Pine Bluff tied for second at 15 wins.
Stetson falls vs. Jacksonville
The back-to-back Atlantic Sun champions lost their third of four conference series this season at Jacksonville from April 2-4.
Stetson dropped the first two games to the Dolphins in low-scoring 5-1 and 4-3 defeats on Thursday and Friday, respectively.
The Hatters had a chance to steal Friday’s game to avoid a premature series loss when Samuel Fernandez solo homered to left center to cut their deficit to 4-3 with zero outs.
Jayden Hylton singled to be the tying run, but he was caught stealing second on the same pitch Yohann Dessureault struck out. Renzo Gonzalez lined out to center field to end the game.
Dessureault avenged his strikeout with a solo home run in Game 3 on Saturday, a 3-0 victory for Stetson. Trace Hartman earned the victory with 5⅔ innings pitched, and Brayden Toro got the save after tossing the final 3⅓ innings with six strikeouts.
The win ended a five-game losing streak since the Hatters’ 8-4 victory over UCF on March 24, but they’ve fallen to 13-19 overall and 4-7 in the ASUN.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: UCF, Bethune-Cookman baseball rise after series victories
Reporting by Zach Allen, Daytona Beach News-Journal / The Daytona Beach News-Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
