Softball to Open Big 12 Tournament Play against Utah

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. – Riding a regular-season-ending four-game win streak and victories in seven of its last 10 games, the UCF softball team is set to begin play in the first round of the Phillips 66 Big 12 Softball Championship hosted by Oklahoma City’s Devon Park.

The Knights concluded their second regular season as members of the Big 12 Conference with a 32-21-1 overall record, including a 12-12 mark in league play on the strength of wins in eight of their final 12 conference games.

UCF’s 32 wins have already surpassed the program’s 31 from a season ago and have now authored seven consecutive 30-plus-win campaigns dating back to 2018, not including the COVID-19-shortened 2020 year that saw the Black and Gold off to a 21-5-1 start prior to the cancellation of the season.

In navigating their second league slate as members of the Big 12 Conference, the Knights earned series wins over No. 4 Arizona, BYU, Houston and Kansas, highlighted by the highest-ranked series win in program history over the Wildcats and a sweep of the Jayhawks, representing the third Big 12 conference series sweep in program history.

The program now enters postseason play with an NCAA RPI ranking of 29 according to the most recent release Monday, May 5 with a resume that features five RPI 1-25 wins, 17 RPI 1-75 wins, six top-25 ranked wins according to weekly polls, an overall 17th-ranked strength of schedule and 10th-ranked non-conference strength of schedule.

UCF’s six top-25 ranked wins also represent the most in a single regular season in program history, and are one shy of matching the 2022 Knights’ seven such wins for the most in a season in program history.

Leading the Knights into postseason play in the circle is redshirt freshman right-hander Isabella Vega, who most recently garnered a trio of weekly honors, including Big 12 Conference Pitcher of the Week, National Wilson/NFCA Division I Pitcher of the Week, and National D1Softball Freshman of the Week, for her efforts against the Jayhawks in the final weekend of the regular season.

Vega completed her first collegiate season as the Big 12 Conference’s ERA leader in league play, with a 0.89 mark, and overall this season finished with a 1.23 ERA in 108.1 innings with 97 strikeouts and a .179 batting average-against.

Senior right-hander Kaitlyn Felton, also a two-time Big 12 Pitcher of the Week winner this season, and freshman Yessenia Lopez have joined Vega in shouldering the majority of UCF’s innings this spring.

Throughout her senior season, Felton has enjoyed a career year, setting single-season career bests in ERA (2.10), innings pitched (106.2), shutouts (3), complete games (9), winning decisions (13) and saves (4).

She has thrown seven innings in an appearance on nine occasions, threw her first career no-hitter against Quinnipiac Feb. 20, played a pivotal role in UCF’s series win over the Wildcats with a win and a save in the series, and tossed a seven-inning complete game in UCF’s first win over Oklahoma State, ranked No. 21 at the time, under head coach Cindy Ball-Malone.

Lopez also burst onto the scene in her first collegiate season, throwing 86.2 innings with 84 strikeouts, second only to Vega’s 97 on the team.

She recorded a dominant start against Auburn during the Clearwater Invitational, holding the Tigers to just three hits and one run with nine strikeouts in six innings of work, and also turned in a strong outing on the road against No. 3 Florida March 12, limiting a high-powered Gators offense to three runs on four hits in six innings with four strikeouts.

Offensively, Sierra Humphreys, Izzy Mertes and Aubrey Evans have led the charge for UCF, with Humphreys posting a team-best .371 average and .458 on-base percentage, Mertes threatening Evans’ 2023 program single-season doubles record, and Evans enjoying a career-high nine-homer campaign.

Redshirt senior Stormy Kotzelnick has caught fire down the stretch as well, representing UCF’s leading hitter in its final 13 games with a .409/.458/.500 (18-for-44) line with seven runs scored and 22 total bases.

The seventh-seeded Knights will open tournament action in Oklahoma City Wednesday evening against a 10th-seeded Utah team they did not meet during the 2025 regular season. The matchup will represent just the second time in either’s history that will see the two squads square off, with UCF having taken the teams’ lone previous tilt by a 4-3 final score in Orlando March 11, 2016.

The Utes enter postseason play the owners of a 13-39 overall record, including a 5-19 mark in Big 12 Conference play. Utah’s highest-ranked win of the season by the NCAA’s RPI metric came against the then-No. 23 San Diego State Aztecs March 1 during the Judi Garman Classic, when a Hailey Maestretti seven-inning shutout served as the backbone for a 1-0 Utes win.

Utah later earned a conference series win over the Jayhawks in Salt Lake City March 21-23, outscoring Kansas 22-17 over the three games to take the first two of the series. Their second series win came the following week against Houston, producing double-digit runs in the first two games of the set before falling in game three, 5-2.

With a win over Utah, UCF would advance to Thursday’s second round and square off against an Arizona team from which the Knights took two of three in Tucson to begin conference play March 7-9.

First pitch is set for 6 p.m. ET from Devon Park and will be streamed on ESPN+ Wednesday.

FOLLOW THE KNIGHTS

Follow UCF softball on X (@UCF_Softball), Instagram (@UCF.Softball) and Facebook (/UCFSoftball).

GET THE APP

Never miss any UCF Knights news from your favorite teams by downloading the free UCF Knights app right to your iOS or Android devices. The app provides personalized information for men’s and women’s teams, scores, schedules, loyalty programs and breaking news. Click here to download the app now.