ORLANDO – The No. 20 UCF softball team improved to 7-0 in conference play and 35-10 overall with a 1-0 victory in game one against ECU.
"Dominant pitching, routine defense and clutch hitting, that's the game," said head coach Cindy Ball-Malone. "We're building to get better in every game in each series. Now we go to work and see what adjustments we need to make to get a few insurance runs."
It was a good-old fashioned pitcher's duel for the entirety of the ballgame as Gianna Mancha tossed a gem for UCF. On the other side, Logyn Estes kept the Knights off the board for quite some time.
The only run of the game came in the fifth inning. With one out in the inning, Justene Molina singled down the right field line, followed by an infield single by Micaela Macario. Next up was Johneisha Rowe, who quickly went down in the count 0-2. Rowe battled back, seeing three balls and fouling one away before slapping one back up the middle to score Molina from second.
Nene sent that back where it came from ?? #ChargeOn pic.twitter.com/Je4dqskhbH
— UCF Softball (@UCF_Softball) April 14, 2022
UCF totaled six hits in the ballgame, earning three through the first two frames and three in the fifth inning. The Knights are now 6-4 when earning anywhere from four to six hits. When the Black and Gold earn seven or more hits, they're an impressive 27-1. Thursday night's game was just the 17th time in 45 games that UCF had been held to less than seven hits. Additionally, this was the fifth straight contest that the Knights haven't homered, the longest stretch this season without a long ball. The Black and Gold come away with a win after scoring less than three runs in the ballgame, a mark that they were 2-8 coming into tonight when scoring below.
Mancha extended her consecutive shutout innings streak to 18 and has now tossed back-to-back shutouts against Memphis and ECU. She took a no-hitter into the sixth inning of the contest, allowing a double down the right field line with two outs in the top of the inning, who was later erased on a caught stealing by Jada Cody to Kennedy Searcy. Mancha has four one-hit complete games this season to go along with her no-hitter she tossed against Furman. Mancha is up to 11 complete games this season and has six solo shutouts. Her ERA is down to 1.64 this season, which is approaching a top 10 mark in a single season at UCF. Alea White holds the 10th spot on UCF's best single-season ERA list with a mark of 1.61. The best mark in a single season is held by Shelby Turnier and Allison Kime, who posted a 0.87 ERA in 2015 and 2007 respectively.
After striking out four in the game, Mancha leaps into seventh all-time in strikeouts at UCF with 322, passing Lindsay Enders (2004-05) who amassed 320 in her time with the Black and Gold. Mancha moved up in two other columns in the record book with Thursday's win, jumping into a tie of seventh with Ashleigh Cole (2007-10) with 12 career shutouts at UCF as well as a tie of eighth in career complete games at UCF with Taylor Sawyer (2003-04) with 28.
The Knights improve to 29-19 all-time against the Pirates and are victors of 12 straight in the all-time series. Thursday was the first time the two sides have faced off in Orlando since 2018 when UCF swept ECU.
UP NEXT
The Knights will host ECU for game two of their three-game series on Friday at 6 p.m. The series finale will unfold on Saturday at 2 p.m.
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