GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The No. 20 UCF softball team saw its 18-game winning streak come to an end at the hands of the No. 7 Gators as they used a six-run second inning to propel themselves to a 10-3 win. The 18 straight victories will go down as the second longest winning streak in program history.
"As pitchers, we need to get ahead," said head coach Cindy Ball-Malone. "We can't have so many three ball counts. Skylar Wallace is doing really well but we put her on three times and she scored three times and its hard to defend that. I think we made some mistakes defensively, dropping a fly ball and foul ball, its hard to be in games when we don't play as clean as we could."
The Gators were first on the scoreboard, plating two runs in their first at-bats as Charla Echols doubled home a run and later scored on a Reagan Walsh single.
The Knights answered with a two-out rally in their half of the second. Denali Schappacher laced the first pitch she saw back up the middle to climb aboard with two outs. She advanced on a wild pitch three pitches later. The next pitch saw Katie Burge smash her first career triple down the right field line and past the outstretched glove of right fielder Cheyenne Lindsey to make it 2-1.
Florida got that run back and more in the bottom of the second, posting a six spot. The inning started with a walk, an infield single and another walk to load the bases, chasing UCF starter Grace Jewell. Angelina DeVoe entered out of the bullpen and got the first batter to fly out to center field, thanks to an amazing diving grab by Johneisha Rowe. A run scored on the play to make it 3-1. The next batter walked, followed by a Knights error in left, allowing another run to come across. DeVoe got the next batter to foul out to get to two outs but saw the next Gator batter knock one to right-center, allowing two unearned runs to score. Kaitlyn Felton entered out of the bullpen to finish off the inning, but not before the Gators added on two more unearned runs on a perfectly placed bloop double down the left field line, making it 8-1.
Florida added one more to go up 9-1 in the bottom of the third on a fielder's choice. With a runner on third, Hannah Adams hit one toward Shannon Doherty at first who picked up the ball and tossed it home but wasn't quick enough to catch Wallace, who reached with a leadoff walk.
The Knights struck back in the top of the fourth as Doherty and Carson Frier led off the frame with a pair of walks. Schappacher stayed hot, smacking the first pitch she saw into the left-center field gap to score both runners as she scampered all the way to third. The triple was her third of the season and eighth of her career, scooting her up into a tie of fifth all-time with Kahley Novak. With Schappacher's two hits in the ballgame, she leaped from ninth into a tie of seventh all-time in base hits, catching up to Cici Alvarez with 207 career base knocks.
The Gators added the final run of the ballgame in the bottom of the sixth on an Adams homer to right-center field, making it a 10-3 ballgame.
The loss snaps UCF's 18-game winning streak, which was the third longest active streak in the nation coming into the contest alongside Oklahoma's 32 and UCLA's 21. It's the first loss for the Knights since Mar. 4 when UCF fell to South Carolina 5-2. The 18 consecutive victories is the second longest winning streak in program history, just three short of tying the Black and Gold's record of 21 which was set in the first year of Knights softball in 2002.
"I really think about how much we grew during that time," said Ball-Malone. "To have one of the longest active winning streaks in the nation alongside UCLA and Oklahoma speaks to the fact that's what good teams do. Now we've just got to get on another one."
The Knights and Gators have now split their last four and six meetings. Florida swept this season's home-and-home series while the Black and Gold did the same in 2021. The Gators got the best of UCF in 2019 after the Knights earned a 1-0 win the year prior. Florida is 23-6 all-time against the Knights.
UP NEXT
UCF will get three more shots at a top 10 opponent as they'll host No. 5 Virginia Tech for a three-game series. The Knights will host the Hokies in a double header on Sunday starting at 2 p.m. followed by the series finale on Monday at 6 p.m.
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