ORLANDO – As the beginning of the UCF softball team’s 2025 season approaches with the program’s annual season-opening Black & Gold Classic, head coach Cindy Ball-Malone will bring into the new year an exciting team infused with young talent and potential to complement the experience and established skills of its returners.
In part three of UCF softball’s class preview, the juniors on the squad’s 2025 roster will be highlighted.
Aubrey Evans | INF | Apopka, Fla.
An established mainstay in the middle infield throughout her first two collegiate seasons, Evans begins her third season in the Black and Gold this spring.
The Apopka native enters the season in sole possession of seventh place on the UCF all-time career on-base percentage list (.400, min. 250 AB), and during her freshman season earned NFCA All-Region Third Team, AAC All-Conference Second Team, AAC All-Rookie Team and AAC All-Tournament Team honors. She also set the Knights’ single-season doubles record (18) during her debut campaign in 2023.
Evans in 2024 hit .268/.358/.373 (38-for-142) with 24 runs scored, nine doubles, two home runs, 53 total bases, 18 walks and four stolen bases in her 52 games, including 51 starts. Her 95 defensive assists ranked ninth in the Big 12 overall, and she produced a spotless 1.000 fielding percentage in conference play.
She began her season with a career-long 11-game hit streak, hitting .354 (17-for-48) from Feb. 8-23, and later recorded her first collegiate walk-off hit to help clinch the first Big 12 series sweep in program history April 6 against BYU.
Lena Elkins | RHP | Nitro, W.Va.
Elkins joins the Knights as a junior transfer from Charlotte, where she compiled a 3.33 ERA in 103 career innings accompanied by 73 strikeouts. She owns two career no-hitters, both on the same day, Feb. 17, 2024 and 2023, against Canisius and St. John’s.
She produced a 2.72 ERA with 32 strikeouts in 36 innings of work her sophomore season, limiting her opposition to a .252 batting average-against.
A Conference USA All-Freshman Team selection during her rookie year in 2023, Elkins appeared in 21 games, including 13 starts, and spun five complete games with a .265 batting average-against. Among her notable accomplishments, the Nitro, W.Va., native recorded a scoreless outing against then-No. 5 Duke in NCAA Regional play May 20.
Ashleigh Griffin | C/1B | Newnan, Ga.
Griffin in her fourth year in Orlando returns for her third season on the field after taking a redshirt in 2023 due to injury. She followed up an AAC All-Conference Second Team freshman season with a strong redshirt sophomore year in 2024, hitting .274/.367/.516 with 13 runs scored, eight doubles, a season-high five home runs, 49 total bases and 24 RBI.
She notably became the first player in program history to earn Big 12 Player of the Week honors last spring, hitting a blistering .600/.714/1.500 (6-for-10) in a three-game series at Houston, accompanied by three home runs, seven RBI and 15 total bases. Her 15 total bases and 1.500 slugging percentage led all Big 12 players during the week’s action.
Her first-inning two-run double in game one of the series against Kansas March 8 aided UCF in earning the first Big 12 Conference series win in program history, and she later helped power the Knights to a road series win at Texas Tech with her first career three-extra-base hit game March 29.
Katelyn Cochran | RHP | North Augusta, S.C.
Cochran returns to the Knights’ staff after a breakout sophomore season that saw her record a 1.06 ERA (4 ER) in 13 appearances (one start) spanning 26.1 innings of work. Her 21 strikeouts marked a season high, and she limited her opposition to a batting average-against of just .196.
The right-hander’s 2024 season was highlighted by her contributions against then-No. 2 Texas March 22-24, during which she threw a team-high five scoreless innings with just four hits and one walk allowed accompanied by three strikeouts. She limited the Longhorns to just a .235 average in the weekend set.
Cochran later notched her first collegiate save at Texas Tech March 28, clinching UCF’s 8-5 comeback victory, and in game three of the series against the Red Raiders, she spun 4.2 frames of scoreless, one-hit ball in relief with four strikeouts.
Her first collegiate winning decision, complete game and shutout all came in her appearance against North Florida in game two of an April 2 doubleheader, an effort that saw her yield just one hit and two walks in the Knights’ 9-0 run-rule victory.
UP NEXT
UCF softball kicks off its spring 2025 campaign with a Feb. 6 season-opening twin bill against CSU Bakersfield at 3:30 p.m. and No. 14 Georgia at 6 p.m. The Knights will then meet NC State Feb. 7 at 4:30 p.m., Illinois Feb. 8 at 5 p.m., and conclude the weekend with a Sunday doubleheader against James Madison at 11 a.m. and Illinois at 1 p.m.
The complete tournament schedule, live stats, ESPN+ livestream links and results can be found here.
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