Rich Wallace, who went to three NCAA Regionals as a UCF player, will take the Knights back to the postseason in his first season as head coach. The Knights were selected as a No. 3 seed and will play No. 2 Alabama in the Tallahassee Regional on Friday at 6 p.m. Florida State and Stetson are the other two teams in the bracket.
Shortly after the NCAA Selection Show, Wallace caught up with the media to talk about the achievement. It's UCF's first regional since 2017 and just their fourth overall since 2005.
After finishing strong which included two wins in the Big 12 tournament and a major RPI-boost victory against eventual champion Oklahoma State, most college baseball writers penciled UCF as solidly in the field. While the Knights obviously did get in, it was later revealed by the committee that they were among the last four teams in the field.
"(I was) a little bit on the edge, just because you never know," Wallace said. "They go in that room. I've been through this enough. You never know what's coming out of that room. But I thought our resume, non-conference, conference and conference tournament was that of a worthy NCAA tournament team.
"So I was hoping they would look at that. And we're just glad to be still playing. I'm glad we have practice this afternoon."
Though he was a bit surprised being among the "last four in."
"A little bit, yeah," Wallace said. "I think who we had to play, where we had to play them, the way the schedule was built with the non-conference weekends that we had. We won six out of 10 Big 12 series, 16 Big 12 games and get to the semifinal of the Big 12 tournament.
"I don't know exactly how many non-conference games we won, but we only lost three. So that to me felt like it, but you never know. I've been on this on both sides of this thing. We won an ACC championship by five and a half games in 2022 and you think you're gonna be a national seed and you're not. You try to do all you can and you just hope the committee gives you a shot."
Wallace reflected on how his inaugural team came together. A staff that had never worked together. Returning players who chose to stay. Transfers who decided to make the move. Freshmen they had to re-recruit.
"To get all that with the 26 new players and five new coaches, to get them all going in the same direction and to watch that kind of evolve over the year and see them win the games on the stage that they had to win them," Wallace said. "And the way they went about it and represented our program, our school and our city the way they did. For them to get a chance to keep playing has been unbelievable."
The NCAA Regional is a big accomplishment for the entire team, but extremely special to the players in their final season of eligibility. That includes several players who have been at UCF for the last four or five years.
"(Kyle) Kramer, (Andrew) Brait, (Ben) Vespi, some other guys in that room that have given everything they could to this program for so long," Wallace said. "Our team wanted them to have the opportunity to experience not only postseason baseball but NCAA Tournament baseball at the highest level. It means a lot to me and the program they don't leave this place without playing in an NCAA Tournament."
UCF opens regional play against Alabama, but there's the potential for a matchup against Florida State. Wallace is probably UCF's head coach today because of FSU coach Link Jarrett, who hired him at Notre Dame in 2020. Wallace spent three seasons with Jarrett in South Bend, which included a trip to the College World Series in 2022, then joined him at FSU last season.
"I had a feeling when we were in that's where we were going, Wallace said. "If you asked me in February that you're going and where it would be I would have guessed Tallahassee. That's what always happens here. You've got Florida State, Alabama, Stetson and us all in the same regional, that's an unbelievably deep regional that's got championship teams all around in it. It's going to be fun to watch."
Given UCF's recent lack of success combined with elevating conferences to the Big 12, few outsiders would have predicted a NCAA Regional in Wallace's first season. But he felt fairly early it would be a distinct possibility.
"I think as the fall started to roll around a little bit and we started to see some pieces fall together," Wallace said. "And then knowing when Jack Zyska showed up, obviously solidified some pieces in our offense. And you just started to see the team kind of gel and the pieces defensively start to work out from the guys we brought in and the guys returning.
"And then I would say near the end of the fall and early spring when you started to see some of those arms that at this point in their career had not had great careers start to look like they were really developing. The guys that we all thought they would be from the beginning like Dom Castellano, Dom Stagliano, Ben Vespi, Chase Centala. Kramer has always been Kramer, but those guys really started to emerge and you started to see that.
"We talked in our first meeting. I know a lot of people outside the building didn't think it, but the standard of UCF baseball is to play in June. So if you're going to sign up for this program, you're going to do everything right on and off the field and your goal and the expectation is that you're going to play in June. We're not going to throw a massive party when we get in in June, but that's the expectation, that's what you deserve. Put in the work, that's where we'll be. And it's nice to see them get rewarded for that."
Florida State will play Stetson at 12 noon on Friday, leaving the evening timeslot for UCF-Alabama at 6 p.m.. That's perfectly fine with Wallace, assuming no weather issues.
Wallace anticipates Dom Stagliano will start Friday's game. He had typically pitched the Saturday games on the weekends, but pitched the first game of the Big 12 tournament against Cincinnati.
This will be Wallace's fifth NCAA Tournament at UCF: Three as a player, one as an assistant coach and now his first as head coach.
"I came back here because I love the program so much," Wallace said. "I was grateful for the opportunity. I know what it's like to play in these tournaments with the UCF on their chest. I'm happy that group of guys gets a chance to do that and represent our school on the highest stage."
