Softball Completes Sweep of Kansas with 8-6 Sunday WinSoftball Completes Sweep of Kansas with 8-6 Sunday Win

Softball Completes Sweep of Kansas with 8-6 Sunday Win

by Ryan Ladika
Box Score

LAWRENCE, Kan. – As freshman designated player Kendall Yarnell stepped to the plate in the top of the seventh inning, there was a level of comfort that accompanied her.

A native of Olathe, Kansas, her surroundings at Arrocha Ballpark were all too familiar from her playing career prior to joining the Knights.

“I’ve played at that stadium multiple times for state tournaments in high school."

Kendall Yarnellfreshman designated player

With a small army of family members in attendance throughout the weekend for her trip back home, Yarnell punctuated UCF’s series finale against the Jayhawks with the biggest hit of her young collegiate career, and one of the UCF softball team’s biggest hits of the season.

With the Black and Gold trailing by one with two on and two out in the top of the seventh, Yarnell drilled a 1-0 offering over the center field fence, propelling the Knights to an eventual 8-6 comeback victory over the Jayhawks Sunday afternoon.

The home run, the first of Yarnell’s collegiate career, helped complete UCF’s first Big 12 Conference series sweep of the season, the third in program history, and give the Knights their eighth win of the year when trailing in the fifth inning or later, or by three-plus runs, and their second such win in as many days.

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“It was awesome. I knew my family was hyped, I heard everybody. It was a long time coming after an injury I suffered in the fall. It was hard for me to get back into hitting, but I knew if I just kept working at it, it would come. It came at the perfect moment.”

Kendall Yarnellfreshman designated player

With UCF’s latest win, the team completed the 2025 regular season on a four-game win streak with a 32-21-1 record and wins in seven of its last 10 games, as well as a 12-12 finish in Big 12 Conference play. The Black and Gold also enter play in the Phillips 66 Big 12 Conference tournament having surpassed their 31-win 2024 campaign.

Timely hitting was the catalyst for a Knights team that would not be denied throughout the regular season’s final weekend, most recently erasing an early 4-0 deficit in the second inning.

Three straight Knights reached to kick off the top of the third, beginning with a four-pitch walk drawn by Samantha Rey and a subsequent single by Coco Jaimes.

Fifth year senior Madi Simon followed with a base hit through the middle of the infield, driving Rey home to cut the deficit to 4-1.

“It shows how much we work. We fell short on some games early in the season, and that’s what we were looking for was that belief and that fight. In the past few weeks, we’ve really showed that we’ve worked on that, and that’s what makes the game fun.”

Kendall Yarnellfreshman designated player

Redshirt sophomore Macy Miles, called upon in relief, spun a spotless bottom half, allowing her team to get right back to work.

Stormy Kotzelnick and Ashleigh Griffin worked back-to-back walks to lead off the fourth frame, and later with one out, freshman catcher Beth Damon lined an RBI double to center field, further cutting into the Jayhawks’ lead.

The Knights weren’t finished in the frame, tying the game at four runs apiece just two batters later on the strength of Coco Jaimes’ two-run double to left-center field.

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“I was just trying to get on top of the ball. Just trying to do my job, not trying to do too much and put the ball in play to make them make a play.”

Coco Jaimesfreshman second baseman

With the score tied, Miles continued her strong relief run in the home half of the fourth, stranding a leadoff Kansas runner with a groundout, pop out and her first strikeout of the afternoon.

When a hard line drive forced the right-hander from the game due to injury in the fifth inning, senior Kaitlyn Felton was summoned as UCF’s third arm of the contest. She notched the final two outs of the fifth before the Jayhawks managed a pair of runs in the sixth to take a 6-4 lead.

Felton’s offensive corps never even flinched.

After erasing a 4-1 seventh-inning deficit Saturday, UCF staged its latest dramatic comeback win, scoring first on a Damon sacrifice fly to center field before Yarnell gave UCF the lead right back with her timely three-run shot.

“As coach Noah Sanders says, play until the last out is made. It’s really special and it brings us all closer.”

Kendall Yarnellhometown hero

Pitching with a lead for the first time in the bottom of the seventh, Felton shrugged off a two-out single, recording her second strikeout of the game to clinch UCF’s 32nd win of the year.

“It shows our belief and fight. It embodies going one pitch as a time. As long as we still have one out, we’re still going to fight,” Jaimes added.

UP NEXT

With the regular season complete, the seventh-seeded Knights will square off against 10th-seeded Utah in the first round of the Phillips 66 Big 12 Softball Championship in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. First pitch is set for 6 p.m. ET from Devon Park and will be streamed on ESPN+.

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