What Went Wrong for the UCF Knights in Elimination Game Loss Against Auburn
On a soggy Sunday night on the Plains, the UCF Knights baseball team's season came to an end at the hands of their NCAA regional hosts, the Auburn Tigers, 9-3.
While the Knights made it back to an NCAA Regional after missing their conference tournament last season, their 2026 campaign ends with them going 32-23 (19-11 Big 12) and falling one game short of making it to their second regional final of the Rich Wallace era.
"Our kids competed," Wallace said after the game. "They competed for the last two months as hard as any team I've ever... ever coached, and couldn't be more proud of these guys."
Hear what coach Rich Wallace (right), catcher Zak Skinner (right) and center fielder DeAmez Ross (center) had to say after the game below:
Here are two key reasons why the Knights now find themselves returning to Orlando:
1. No Passing The Bat
And just like that, a Skinner 430 FT solo bomb puts us within one‼️
— UCF Baseball (@UCF_Baseball) June 1, 2026
📺 ESPN+ pic.twitter.com/YhD9lJrxFw
Unlike UCF's other two games of the Auburn regional, the Knights were the ones that got on the field first, taking a 2-0 lead thanks to a pair of RBI hits from center fielder DeAmez Ross: a solo home run in the first and an RBI single in the second. The Knights needed more than that if they were going to win, however, and while a few swings managed to get the ball to the warning track, catcher Zak Skinner was the only one to get one to go over the fence. It ended up being UCF's final run of the season.
"I was just trying to get a pitch I could do damage with, something I could hit hard, and I just was lucky enough to get a good one," Skinner said after the game.
The problem was not hitting with runners in scoring position; the Knights went 2-3 in that situation. The problem was getting runners into scoring position in the first place.
First, there was just getting on base, which, taking away UCF's home runs, only happened four times all night. A fresh pair of Auburn pitchers, Alex Petrovic and Ryan Hetzler, combined to record 11 strikeouts against the Knights. It is the 10th time this season UCF had double-digit strikeouts and the first time since their midweek loss to Florida Atlantic.
As for when runners actually got on base, however, the Knights could not capitalize, going 2-10 with runners on base while the Tigers went 2-8. However, compared to Auburn, a starker difference comes when looking at advancement opportunities. By that metric, UCF went 3-11, while Auburn was 6-12, despite most of the Tigers' runs not even coming from those opportunities.
2. Boom or Bust
Gave us all he had 🫡
— UCF Baseball (@UCF_Baseball) June 1, 2026
Roman finishes with a career-high 7Ks on a season-high 89 pitches. pic.twitter.com/l08buXFUvb
Normally, when a starting pitcher strikes out a third of the batters he faced, it portends a productive performance. However, despite UCF's Roman Kimball striking out seven of the 21 Auburn batters he faced, of the five hits he gave up, three of them were solo home runs. For all the outs he helped earn, all it took were three swings of the bat for the Tigers to take the lead, which they would not give up the rest of the night.
Auburn went on to hit three more solo shots before the game was over, meaning it could have beaten UCF just with them alone, 6-3. Two of them were given up by relief pitcher Anthony Lariz. They were the only two hits he gave up in his 1.2 innings on the mound, which saw him strike out three of the seven batters he faced.
By the time Matt Sauser was put on the mound, making his first appearance in over a month, Auburn had scored double the Knights' run total, and in his one inning on the mound, he gave up another solo home run. Of the eight hits given up by the Knights' first three pitchers, six of them were home runs.
Wallace might not have made it as far as he did in his first season at the helm of the Knights, but he said he asked his team to do two things this season: make a stand in the Big 12 and make it back to the postseason where they belonged. Despite injuries running rampant among the pitching staff, they did.
"I've coached teams that have dealt with the injuries and setbacks that these guys had, and they don't even come close to accomplishing what this group has, and this group will stick in my mind for a long time," Wallace said.
Catch up on more UCF news below:
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Meet The 2026 UCF Knights: Countdown To Kickoff - No. 95 RJ Jackson Jr.
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Bryson Turner is a sports journalist who covers UCF Athletics. Turner has contributed to the Black and Gold Banneret, the home for UCF Athletics on SB Nation. He has called the Orlando area home since the age of 8 and received his bachelor's and master's degrees from UCF.
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