Knights head to NCAA tourney

Knights baseball may have one of the best road records in NCAA baseball, but it’ll be put to the test as No. 16 UCF takes off for the NCAA regional tournament on Friday to face a former College World Series team.

Hitting the tournament on the road will bring a dose of familiarity for the dominant Knights (43-15), who enter the regional seeded No. 2 for the tournament, just like last year when they played in Tallahassee. This time they’re heading to Coral Gables to take on Missouri State, a team that made it to the 2003 College World Series. That’s also the last time Bears (39-20) made it to the postseason.

The Knights will have their work cut out for them on the mound, as the Bears are rarely at a loss for runs. And with longtime coach Keith Guttin, who hit the 1,000-win mark this season, at the helm, they’ll have plenty of postseason experience coaching them through the tournament.

For the Knights, who have struggled at the plate against strong pitching, it’ll be a question of finding clutch hits when they’ve previously failed to deliver. But the Knights have a knack for coming back, as shown in the Conference USA Tournament last weekend. They’ll rely on clutch hitting all around, particularly from the cleanup bat of D.J. Hicks, though he’s acted like more of a leadoff hitter in key games. During the Knights’ 6-2 pummeling of Tulane to close out the C-USA tournament, he drew four walks.

UCF baseball shrugged off an embarrassing 15-1 loss to C-USA backmarker UAB to come back with a pair of wins to take the final two games of the C-USA Tournament. The two wins were just as big a blowout as their one loss in the tournament, with the Knights lighting up East Carolina pitching in an 11-1 win on May 24. In that game they left less than one runner per inning on base.

Depending on how far they go, the Knights could have the chance to play Miami, Florida State and University of Florida, though the Knights won’t see the Gators unless they make it to the College World Series. They’ll have one shot at redemption if they fall in the double-elimination first round, which starts this Friday, June 1, in Coral Gables.