STOCKTON, Calif. – After an incredible week at the plate, No. 24 UCF softball's Jada Cody was named as the American Athletic Conference's Player of the Week. Gianna Mancha was named to the conference's weekly honor roll for her performance as well.
"Dominant performances from two of our captains this week," said head coach Cindy Ball-Malone. "They have worked extremely hard to get to this point and their eyes are still on being their best at the end of the year. Well-deserved for both Jada and Gianna. Love this squad and the fact that we have a new star each week."
Cody had a tremendous week at the plate, slugging two doubles, four home runs and 14 RBI over the weekend. All told on the week, she earned an OPS of 1.746 and went 8-for-18 at the plate. She has now homered in three straight games and in four of her last five and leads the team with a total of five homers.
The 14 RBI this week brings Cody to 30 for the season, which is already a career best for her through just 22 games. To put into perspective how quickly she has arrived at the milestone, she collected 28 RBI in 61 games in 2021. She is the fastest Knight to earn 30 RBI in a season, edging out UCF Hall of Famer Stephanie Best for that claim. Best currently holds the top three single-season RBI records at UCF, with the top one being 66 RBI during the 2003 season.
It may arguably be one of the top performances in a single weekend in UCF history, as Cody went 8-for-15 in the five weekend games. In total, the Knights put up 37 runs over the weekend, with Cody being responsible for 14 RBI and five runs scored. On Saturday alone, Cody went 4-for-7 with two homers and nine RBI. This wasn't the only time this season that Cody has thrived in a double header, as she hit for a combined cycle against Fresno State and Longwood, going 4-for-6 with a double, triple, home run and eight RBI on Feb. 12.
Mancha earned herself a spot on the weekly honor roll for her appearances this week. She had two complete games in her three starts with one of them being a shutout against Oakland. Her stats for the weekend were impressive, tossing 19 innings of work with 22 strikeouts and just six walks. She only surrendered five runs total, four of them earned, giving her a 1.47 ERA for the weekend while posting a 2-0 record. Batters hit just .205 against her and had a tough time even getting a bat on the ball as Mancha posted eight strikeouts against Oakland and 10 against FGCU.
UCF has had someone recognized in conference's weekly honors each week of the 2022 season. Cody was recognized on the honor roll in week one for her eight RBI performance, followed by Savannah Adams earning a .444 batting average with five RBI the week after Cody. Micaela Macario was the team's first Player of the Week this season, earning 10 RBI and a .462 batting average in week three. Kaitlyn Felton landed on the honor roll that same week, working 6.1 scoreless innings with eight strikeouts, all while registering her first complete-game shutout as well as holding No. 4 Florida scoreless with three punchouts in 1.1 innings of relief.
UP NEXT
The 24th ranked Knights will begin their seven-game swing through the state of California with a contest at Pacific on Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET.
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