Mizzou Baseball can’t silence UCF bats, falls to Knights

The Tigers are now 1-3 to open the 2025 season

The UCF Knights took a lead in the opening inning and never looked back Thursday night, defeating Mizzou Baseball 7-1 in Orlando. Wil Libbert struggled in his first collegiate start, putting the Tigers behind early in a deficit the offense was never able to overcome.

The Tigers threatened in the top of the first, putting Mateo Serna and Kaden Peer in scoring position with two outs, before freshman Cayden Nicoletto stranded them on a flyout to left field.

UCF capitalized on a similar opportunity in the bottom of the opening inning, with Andrew Sundean scoring DeAmez Ross and Braden Calise on a two out double to left-center to jump ahead 2-0.

The Knights doubled their lead in the bottom of the third. Braden Calise walked with one out, then was brought home the next at bat when Andrew Williamson got just enough of the ball to hit the right field foul pole for a two run home run.

Mizzou continued to struggle when they put runners on the bases, stranding five runners (four of them in scoring position) over the first four innings of play.

Meanwhile, UCF continued to make good on chance after chance.

Libbert was pulled from his debut start after three innings, allowing three hits and four earned runs while walking three batters. Josh Kirchhoff came on in relief, making his Mizzou debut, and put together a scoreless fourth.

But the Knights didn’t take long to figure out the Iowa Central CC product, exploding for three runs in the bottom of the fifth inning – which could have been much worse.

Two singles and a walk loaded the bases at the start of the frame for Lex Boedicker, who scored Ross and Calise on a single to right-center field. Andrew Sundean followed with a sacrifice fly to right, plating Williamson and putting the home team ahead by seven runs.

The bases filled up again after Matt Prevesk walked and Kendrey Maduro singled to left field, quickly ending Kirchhoff’s night.

The Tigers brought in Nic Smith, who’d faced one batter so far this season, to put out the fire. That’s exactly what he did, inducing a groundout (leading to a force out at the plate) and a flyout to end the inning and strand the bases loaded.

Kaden Peer led off the top of the sixth inning and put a small dent in the UCF lead, hitting his first home run of the season to right field and getting Mizzou on the board, 7-1.

Smith induced a flyout to start the bottom half of the inning before exiting the game, not allowing a hit in his three batters faced. Freshman and two-way player PJ Green replaced him on the mound, another Tigers debut, allowing a single to Williamson but otherwise shutting down the Knights’ offense.

Green first showed some of the usual freshman command issues in the bottom of the seventh, hitting Sundean with a pitch and walking Prevesk to open the half. Sundean advanced to third on a warning track flyout, placing runners on the corners, but three straight flyouts got the freshman out of the jam.

Ben Smith again shined in relief late in this game, striking out three straight batters after allowing a bunt single to open the bottom of the eighth.

But Kevin Schoneboom put the Tigers’ bats to bed in the top of the ninth, ending a quiet night for the Mizzou offense and clinching the 7-1 victory for UCF.

Kerrick Jackson’s squad combined for four hits, three of them coming from center fielder Kaden Peer – who also scored the team’s only run with a solo shot to right field. Mateo Serna was the only Tigers player with a hit, singling in the opening inning.

DeAmez Ross and Andrew Williamson led the charge for the Knights offense, going a combined 5-9 with four runs and two RBI, both of those coming off the Williamson home run in the bottom of the third.

The Tigers are now 1-3 early this season and have gone winless against power conference opponents, combining for just one run in those two contests. It’s a concerning trend for the team, which opened up the offense against mid major opponents last year but had its bats cool off significantly when SEC play arrived.

Many of those mid major games early last season were high scoring, which has also been the case so far in 2025. The team’s pitching improved over the course of the 2024 season, but Mizzou’s depth has looked extremely thin over these first two weeks.

The Tigers’ pitching staff might not be able to carry the same load it did last year. And while the team’s offense is better this season on paper, Kerrick Jackson’s squad has yet to show that improvement yet on the field.

Mizzou will get a slight reprieve from its tough early season schedule when the team heads to the Andre Dawson Classic in Vero Beach this weekend. The Tigers will open up the tournament with a matchup against Florida A&M tomorrow night at 7 p.m. and the game will be broadcast on MLB Network.