UCF's injured pitcher was unable to fly, so his coach drove him 13 hours back to campus

Rich Wallace makes the same promise to all of the players who come through the UCF baseball program.Whether they like it or not — and sometimes they don’t, the Knights head coach joked — he pledges to treat each of them as if they were his own son.So last week, after a terrifying situation played out at West Virginia on Friday when UCF pitcher Braden Smith took a blistering line drive to the head, Wallace didn’t hesitate when local doctors informed him Smith would not be cleared to fly back with the team after the series concluded Sunday.If Smith couldn’t fly, neither would Wallace.Advertisement