{"id":1707,"date":"2026-05-25T20:36:28","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T20:36:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=1707"},"modified":"2026-05-25T20:36:28","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T20:36:28","slug":"ucf-baseball-hopes-to-make-a-splash-in-ncaa-tournament-after-missing-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=1707","title":{"rendered":"UCF baseball hopes to make a splash in NCAA Tournament after missing 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<p>UCF is returning to the NCAA Baseball Tournament after missing the regionals last season.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=1705\">Florida lawmakers reach final deal on state budget in special session<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Knights (31-21) will face N.C. State (32-22) in the second game of the Auburn Regional at Plainsman Park on Friday (6 p.m., ESPNU). It\u2019s the second meeting between the programs, but the first since 1994.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s the 14th time that UCF has earned a spot in the 64-team NCAA tournament field and the second since the hiring of coach Rich Wallace in 2023.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis group\u2019s a special group, so to keep them together to be able to practice for another week and compete no matter where it is \u2014 it means a lot,\u201d said Wallace. \u201cObviously, our group is extremely excited. We got our work cut out for us, but the guys are excited for the challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Wallace wanted to do something special for the team during the watch party for the selection show, so he invited everyone to a relative\u2019s house near the UCF Rowing Center, located near Lake Pickett. During ESPN\u2019s broadcast, the players were shown celebrating the news in a swimming pool.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe wanted to do something a little more UCF-ish, where we\u2019re in Orlando,\u201d Wallace said, \u201cso might as well get out in the pool in the sunshine and enjoy this thing and do it a little different, do it the UCF way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is what this team is. This team just loves to have fun,\u201d added senior outfielder DeAmez Ross. \u201cWe did some cannonballs, we did some back flips in the lake. It was amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>UCF softball coach believes \u2018best is yet to come\u2019 for Knights<\/p>\n<div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"mxL18idoHg\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"282\" loading=\"lazy\" marginheight=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" scrolling=\"no\" security=\"restricted\" src=\"https:\/\/www.orlandosentinel.com\/2026\/05\/24\/ucf-softball-coach-believes-best-is-yet-to-come-for-knights\/embed\/#?secret=dFk4YcFStH#?secret=mxL18idoHg\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"\u201cUCF softball coach believes \u2018best is yet to come\u2019 for Knights\u201d \u2014 Orlando Sentinel\" width=\"500\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>No. 4 national seed Auburn (38-19) will face Milwaukee (25-31) in the first game of the double-elimination tournament Friday (1 p.m., ESPN+).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve watched Auburn and N.C. State a bunch, but I haven\u2019t really watched Milwaukee, but we kind of know what we\u2019re getting with two really talented championship-level teams,\u201d said Wallace.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=1703\">Clermont hosts original Tuskegee Airman and remembers the fallen on Memorial Day<\/a><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s only the second time in program history that UCF has played a regional outside of Florida since 2001, when the Knights earned a spot in the Columbia Regional in South Carolina.<\/p>\n<div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cWhen we started building (our schedule) in the fall, we didn\u2019t play a home fall game,\u201d said Wallace. \u201cWe purposely went on the road, knowing that in this league (the Big 12), if you want to make a run, you\u2019ve got to play well on the road.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve won four of the five road series and these guys have been road warriors the whole time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>UCF is 18-26 all-time in NCAA regional appearances, including a 2-2 mark in its last appearance in 2024. The Knights have never advanced to the Super Regional in the 52-year history of the program.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s been a bounce-back season for UCF, which was coming off a disappointing 29-26 campaign in 2025 that included a 9-21 mark in the Big 12. The Knights failed to qualify for a conference tournament for the first time since 2010.<\/p>\n<p>This season, the team finished fourth (19-11) in the Big 12 standings, behind Kansas (22-8), West Virginia (21-9) and Arizona State (19-11), but the Knights lost in the conference tournament quarterfinals to Oklahoma State. Those Big 12 rivals all made the field, along with Cincinnati. Kansas is the No. 15 national seed. West Virginia is No. 16.<\/p>\n<p><em>Please find me on X, Bluesky or Instagram @osmattmurschel. Email: mmurschel@orlandosentinel.com. Sign up for the Sentinel\u2019s Knights Weekly newsletter for a roundup of all our UCF coverage.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=1701\">Democrats feud over stock trading as they sharpen anti-corruption case against Trump<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Knights finished fourth in the Big 12 baseball standings after missing out on the postseason last year. They&#8217;ll play N.C. State at the Auburn Regional on Friday in Alabama.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1706,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-sports","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>UCF baseball hopes to make a splash in NCAA Tournament after missing 2025 - Orlando Relocation Report<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=1707\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UCF baseball hopes to make a splash in NCAA Tournament after missing 2025 - Orlando Relocation Report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Knights finished fourth in the Big 12 baseball standings after missing out on the postseason last year. 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