OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. – Ashleigh Griffin made quite a bit of history, both for herself and for her team, with one swing.
The redshirt junior stepped to the plate in the bottom of the seventh inning, teammate Aubrey Evans on first base with two outs and her team locked in a 5-5 tie with the Utah Utes.
Fighting her way out of a 1-2 count, Griffin clubbed the fifth pitch of her at-bat over the left field fence, lifting the UCF softball team to a 7-5 Big 12 Conference tournament-opening win over the Utes at Devon Park Wednesday evening.
UCF’s latest victory, its 33rd of the season, also represented its fifth straight, its eighth in its last 10 games, and the first Phillips 66 Big 12 Softball Championship win in program history.
Griffin’s swing also gave the first baseman a new single-season career high six home runs and represented the first walk-off home run of her career, as well as the Black and Gold’s third walk-off win of the 2025 campaign.
“I’m proud of how our team fought at the end there and I thought Isabella Vega threw a great game,” said head coach Cindy Ball-Malone. “We played well scoring often throughout the game; we just have to be better at closing in the seventh inning. We’ll take a win at any point in postseason.”
Her long ball also helped keep UCF’s 2025 Big 12 tournament run going after the Utes authored a furious seventh-inning rally to erase a 5-0 lead carried into the final frame by the Knights.
“All I was doing was trying to pass the bat to the next person,” Griffin recalled. My teammates are always going to have my back, and I know Vega was dealing all game, so it was my turn to have her back in that moment.”
UCF, the designated home team for the contest, cruised through the affairs’ first six innings behind a strong start from Vega and timely offensive contributions throughout the lineup. 2025 All-Big 12 freshman Beth Damon drew a bases-loaded free pass in the home half of the first inning to break the ice early, and the team continued to add on.
A third-inning rally resulted in three more runs for the Black and Gold, beginning with four consecutive walks, the last of which drawn by fellow freshman second baseman Coco Jaimes. Fifth year senior center fielder Madison Simon then followed with a two-run single up the middle to plate Samantha Rey and Izzy Mertes, and push UCF’s lead to 4-0.
The run support was more than enough for Vega, who brought a bid for her second no-hitter in the last week into the top of the sixth inning.
She worked around a two-out first-inning walk with her first strikeout of the game and induced weak contact throughout her appearance, retiring 13 consecutive Utes from the final out of the first through the last out of the fifth.
Utah broke up her no-hit bid with a bunt single to lead off the top of the sixth, but Vega remained unfazed, later stranding a pair of Ute runners to hold UCF’s advantage.
After redshirt senior Stormy Kotzelnick plated the Knights’ fifth run with another run-scoring single in the fifth, Utah came all the way back in the top of the seventh, scoring five times on five hits and a UCF defensive miscue.
A 6-5 groundout with the bases loaded executed by shortstop Aubrey Evans, though, helped UCF escape the field without surrendering the lead to Utah, and set the stage for Griffin’s walk-off home run.
“This team has been put in many different situations throughout the season, with the opponents we’ve faced,” Ball-Malone continued. “The Big 12 is tough. They’re more prepared now than they’ve ever been. They’re getting better every game we play together, and they’re starting to play more seasoned.”
With the game-winning home run, Griffin’s second of the season after she capped the largest comeback win in program history over the Stetson Hatters with a seventh-inning three-run home run, the redshirt junior continued to prove her abilities as one of the Knights’ top situational hitters.
Following the Knights’ 55th game of the year, Griffin saw her average with two outs continue to climb to a team-best .392 (20-for-51) on the year, and she produced her 16th and 17th two-out RBI of the spring.
“I’m really proud of this group and our fight,” Ball-Malone continued. “To do what they’ve done throughout the season with this schedule we’ve had is pretty amazing.”
UP NEXT
The seventh-seeded Knights advance to the Big 12 tournament’s second round, and will square off once again against the second-seeded Arizona Wildcats. First pitch is set for 6 p.m. ET from Devon Park and will be streamed on ESPN+.
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