Baylor Baseball Finishes Season with 10-8 Loss to UCF

WACO, Texas – Baylor baseball (22-31, 10-20) capped off its season with a 10-8 loss to UCF (33-18, 14-15) Saturday afternoon at Baylor Ballpark.

Before the contest, nine seniors – Daniel Altman, Kobe Andrade, Harrison Caley, Gabe Craig, Kade Fletcher, Mason Greer, Grant Golomb, Jared Matheson and Cole Posey – were honored.

Baylor Athletics

RF Enzo Apodaca (RJr.) finished his 2024 campaign with a four-hit game and will likely find himself on an All-Big 12 team in the coming weeks.

Despite the loss, Baylor outhit UCF, 12-to-11, and scored in six of the game’s nine innings. Right fielder Enzo Apodaca (RJr.) led the lineup and closed his stellar 2024 campaign with a four-hit, three-RBI performance at the plate. 

The Bears scored six unanswered runs and came within a few feet of tying the game in the ninth inning when third baseman Mason Greer (Sr.) soared a deep fly out to the right-field warning track. In his final collegiate game, Greer went 3-for-5 and scored three runs.

“With this being probably my last game, I wanted to have fun and soak it all in,” Greer said after the loss. “To have three hits was definitely cool to end it on.”

The Bears racked up four errors in the defeat; just two of the Knights’ ten runs were earned.

“Even when it's the last game of the year, and your fate has been set, we got behind, and you have every opportunity to go in the tank, and they just kept fighting – I’m proud of them for that; I think it showed their character,” head coach Mitch Thompson said postgame. “But I’m disappointed in the entirety of the season and the whole win-loss record, that’ll always be a big part of this, but these guys gave a lot, and they fought through a lot of adversity.”

UCF jumped out to an early lead with a six-spot in the first inning off right-handed pitcher Collin McKinney (RFr.). Two crucial errors from last night’s hero, shortstop Tyriq Kemp (Jr.), extended the frame and forced McKinney to exit the contest without going more than an inning.

With lefty Kobe Andrade (Sr.) on the mound in the fourth, the Knights added three more runs after a throwing error to first base on a sacrifice bunt and a successful infield single in the following at-bat.

Baylor Athletics

Only two of UCF’s 10 runs were earned. The Bears had four errors in the loss.

From that point forward, Baylor’s offense added at least a run in each of the next five innings. Apodaca and catcher Harrison Caley (Sr.) had run-scoring base knocks and left fielder Wesley Jordan (Jr.) crushed his team-leading ninth home run in the seventh.

“We chipped away, but it was one run at a time, and it would’ve been great if we could have put a little more pressure on them and got a three-spot in there,” Thompson said. “You take what you can get. We had our chances, and it just didn’t work out.”

Relievers Tanner Duke (RFr.), RJ Ruais (Fr.) and Gabe Craig (RJr.) combined for four strikeouts and 4.1 shutout innings out of the bullpen.

Final: UCF 10, Baylor 8

W: Wiley Hartley (3-2) L: Collin McKinney (3-6) S: Kris Sosnowski (5)

POTG: Enzo Apodaca (4-for-5, 2 2B, 3 RBI)

WHAT’S NEXT

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