What should postseason expectations be for UCF baseball?

Steven Ryzewski, Sports Editor

 

It’s here.

 

The regular season was fun and all, but the games that will determine whether or not the No. 19 UCF Knights achieve the goals they set out at the start of the 2012 campaign are set to be played in the next few weeks.

 

For the program, the expectation is a no-brainer: these guys want to go to Omaha, Neb., and play in the College World Series. And that’s all fine and good, but that’s more of a “best possible outcome.”

 

The two expectations fans and followers of this club should have for the weeks to come are this: reach the Conference USA tournament’s championship game on Sunday by winning Pod Two and reach the Super Regionals.

 

For starters, the Knights should rise out of their pod. They are better than UAB, better than East Carolina and better than Tulane. They demonstrated that over the course of the season, with a 7-2 record against them.

 

Presumably, if UCF executes and makes the championship game on Sunday, it’ll be playing Rice. While no one would object to a bit of revenge in yet another winner-take-all game, I don’t think it can be labeled an expectation. 

 

Either way, UCF will receive an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. That’s great, but making a quiet exit in at regionals doesn’t represent progress. 

 

Yes, for the Knights to advance out of the regional round, assuming they don’t host, it will mean going through likely-hosts Florida or FSU. A tough task but one the program needs to embrace. 

 

This season has been a massive step forward for the program. Completing that means making it to a Super Regional.

 

 

Beating Florida, FSU unlikely

Andy Zunz, Baseball Beat Writer

It wasn’t an ideal ending to the season.

Four weeks ago, UCF was sitting at No. 8 in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association poll, in position to host a regional for the first time in school history and atop the Conference USA standings.

Then things started looking a little less perfect.

The Knights went from riding a seven-game win streak to losing half of their final 12 games and missing a chance to claim the C-USA title for the first time in school history in the process.

Despite watching a C-USA title and a chance to host a regional fall through its hands, coach Terry Rooney’s squad is still in a position to make some noise. But it won’t be easy.

Playing on the road in the regionals means that UCF will likely be playing at either Florida or FSU.

Just a reminder, the Knights are 0-3 against those two teams.

While both of the team’s losses to FSU were by one run, College Baseball Daily and Perfect Game both project UCF heading to Gainesville to play the Gators, the team that beat UCF by eight runs this season.

So, let’s recap.

UCF is good at baseball. The team had a great chance to win its conference and host a regional but blew it. Now, in order to make it past regionals, UCF must beat either FSU or Florida (probably).

Will it happen?

Probably not.

The Knights have shown that they can hang with the big boys this year. But you have to do more than just hang — you have to beat them at their place.

It’s time to see if they have the horsepower to make it to Omaha.

 

 

Knights can win, but it will be uphill battle

Mary Stevens, Contributing Writer

Without a question, the members of the UCF baseball team are road warriors. The club currently owns the best road record (15-3) in the nation.

UCF is currently in Pearl, Miss., hoping to win the Conference USA tournament. Being on the road with an impressive lineup, the Knights will have no problem getting by UAB, Tulane and East Carolina. Winning against these three teams will eventually lead to “Championship Sunday,” where they will most likely face Rice for another winner-takes-all match.

To be realistic, neither team can beat the other every time they play.

Last year, UCF won the series against Rice in the regular season but lost the postseason game. This year, I believe the roles will be reversed. But to win against the Owls, the Knights will have to figure out how to recreate what they did a week ago on Thursday and Friday against Rice, when they jumped out to an 8-0 lead in Game One of last week’s series and held the Owls to win the game, 8-6.

Winning the C-USA tournament this weekend means automatically being one step closer to Omaha, Neb., the site of the College World Series.

In order for UCF to host a regional, it needed to finish the season strong. This didn’t happen, so the chances of UCF hosting a regional are not great, but it hasn’t been ruled out.