ORLANDO – In a Wednesday night battle between two ranked teams, the No. 14 UCF Knights fell to the No. 23 Missouri Tigers, 11-8, at the UCF Softball Complex.
After UCF beat Ohio State 1-0 in a pitcher's duel this past Saturday, the bats were the story of this game, as both teams finished with a combined 22 hits, 19 runs, and seven home runs. Five of these homers were for the Knights, which tied a program record set during their 6-0 win against the No. 8 Connecticut Huskies in the 2014 American Athletic Conference Tournament.
This is the third time these two teams have faced off against each other. The Knights dropped the previous matchup, 6-5, in the 2021 season. In their 2015 matchup, UCF won 1-0.
The Black and Gold started off the scoring in the bottom of the first. An historic home run from Jada Cody moved her into sole possession of fifth place on the all-time UCF RBI list, with 123. Cody would finish the game 2-3 with a double, home run, and the historic RBI.
"I was seeing a lot of her pitches," Cody said of her first at-bat. "I felt confident going into this game. Just continuing to be where I am and just living in the moment was a big thing for me. It's an honor. I didn't even know I was that far up there, but it's a great feeling, I'm excited for more to come."
Sarah Willis had her first career multi-homer game, with two solo shots in the fourth and sixth innings. Willis, the Washington transfer, now has six career home runs.
Shannon Doherty and Chloe Evans also homered, in the fifth and seventh innings, respectively. Both hitters went 2-for-4 from the plate. Evans, a junior transfer from Minnesota, now has two homers this year. Micaela Macario also performed well in the batter's box, going 2-for-3 on the day. Macario is now on a four-game hit streak, with two multi-hit games in this span.
Despite the Knights scoring each inning, a big third and fifth inning would help the Tigers to seal the victory. A five-run third inning gave Missouri the lead, which would increase with one run in the fourth, and four more in the fifth.
"We have to play defense," said head coach Cindy Ball-Malone. "Our team can hit; we can also play defense because we showed that, but I think we need to wrap our heads around playing more passion rather than emotion, defensively. Our pitchers have more in their tank than what we brought today, [but] I like how we didn't lay down. We just kept fighting, we kept trying to put the game in motion. One or two calls go a different way, we catch one or two balls, it's a completely different result."
UP NEXT
The Knights will travel across the state for the TaxAct Clearwater Invitational. UCF will open the tournament Friday at 3 p.m. against No. 25 Michigan, followed by a 7 p.m. matchup against Texas A&M. Saturday, the Knights will play No. 17 Duke and No. 12 Alabama, and will wrap up the tournament Sunday night against Mississippi State on ESPN2.