Off to a 15-2 start and rising in the national polls, UCF Baseball is about to face some of their biggest challenges of the season.
On Wednesday, the No. 12 Knights welcome No. 7 Miami in a midweek contest at John Euliano Park. After hosting Yale this weekend, the homestand continues into next week with No. 11 Florida State visiting Orlando for a Tuesday/Wednesday series and then American Athletic Conference play begins the following weekend with league-favorite East Carolina rolling into town.
The immediate attention centers around Miami, who are 11-4 and coming off a weekend sweep of Pittsburgh.
"It'll be fun," UCF head coach Greg Lovelady said. "Two top-15 ranked teams. Something cool for our program that we've been building towards. Just a cool experience for everybody and a good test at the same time. We've got to continue to grow and get better. You get to play against one of the best teams in the country, but you get to do it at home. We got a chance to do it against Auburn on the road. To get a chance to be at home, hopefully there will be a huge crowd. Hopefully a preview of what's to come later in the year. It'll be exciting.
"Excited to see how our guys handle it. Obviously now that we're not playing out of the weeds anymore like we were at Auburn. They're not going to be sleeping on us. We've got to come ready to play. It'll be interesting to see how our guys handle it."
This matchup has always been a personal one to Lovelady, who played for the Hurricanes from 1998-2001 and won a pair of College World Series in that span.
"It's probably not as personal as it was four years ago or nine years ago when I was at Wright State and got to play them," Lovelady said. "The place means a lot to me. Grew up there, was a huge fan and got to live my childhood dream, doing the things we were able to do in terms of winning National Championships. I root for those guys because they're all my friends still and people that have meant a lot to me, but I've got stuff I want to do here for these kids and this program. So the nostalgia and the excitement of playing them is really kind of faded the more we play and get used to it. It just becomes another team and another opportunity for us to get better."
Jaylyn Whitehead (0.55 ERA) will get the start for UCF, though Lovelady indicated it could be a pitcher-by-committee type night.
"We'll have all hands on deck," Lovelady said. "I can't imagine it'll be like a normal game where he goes five, six, seven innings. It'll probably be short and try to get a bunch of guys in there, mix and match... Hopefully Jayln, Hunter (Patteson), Nick (Gotilla) and Salt (Ryan Saltonstall) will be ready to go and rise up to the occasion and be able to thrwart that left-handed dominant lineup. They're super talented and super experienced. It's a dangerous combination, especially when you mix in the talent they have down there."
Miami is led by Adrian Del Castillo with a team-best .373 batting average. Del Castillo, Anthony Vilar and Alex Toral are tied for the team-lead in RBIs with 15 apiece.
"Miami is not only talented, but experienced," Lovelady said. "Toral and (Jordan) Lala started every game last year. Toral is a three-year starter. Led the ACC in home runs last year. (Raymond) Gil is a three-year starter. Vilar. All these guys have a ton of at-bats under their belts. Even the bottom of the lineup. It's been a very experienced lineup. They've played a lot together. Obviously had some success the last couple years. Left-handed dominant. They could have seven left-handers in the lineup which really is a different look than what most people are accustomed to seeing."
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