ORLANDO – The No. 20 UCF softball team earned their third conference sweep of the season and improved to 9-0 in league play, beating ECU 2-1 in the series finale on Saturday. The Knights have won eight straight contests and are out to their best start in conference play as part of the American Athletic Conference.
"They got up on us with that run in the first inning," said head coach Cindy Ball-Malone. "Gianna locked it down for us after. The zone was a little tighter than the last two days, but I just like how she responded, mixed her pitches a little differently and we played defense behind her. We got the clutch hits when we needed them there in the second inning."
ECU was first to score, plating a run in the first inning. Taudrea Sinnie climbed aboard on a chopper in the infield and was moved over on a sacrifice bunt by Faith Jarvis. With one down, number four hitter Chandly Garner hit one to the centerfield fence for a double and advanced a bag on an error. She wound up being stranded there, but the Pirates were up 1-0 early.
The Knights responded with a pair of runs in the bottom of the second inning. Ashleigh Griffin started the inning with a walk and was pinch ran for by Katie Burge. Schappacher reached on a fielder's choice as Burge was erased on the play. With two out in the inning, Maddie Bejarano collected her third double of the season, scoring Schappcher from first. It's the 133rd run scored of Schappacher's career putting her alone in fifth place on UCF's all-time runs scored list, passing Cici Alvarez (2004-07) and coming to within one of Natalie Land (2009-12).
Just like last night, Justene Molina put the Black and Gold in front 2-1, this time reaching on an infield chopper and moving Bejarano over to third. The throw to the first base bag was wide, allowing Bejarano to scamper home and advancing Molina to second.
After a tough first frame, Gianna Mancha was dominant from the circle. The two hits surrendered in the first inning were the only she allowed for the duration of her start, going six innings and striking out seven while walking five.
Mancha began the top of the seventh in the circle but allowed a leadoff walk. Ball-Malone turned to Kama Woodall out of the bullpen, who was fresh off a complete-game one hitter in yesterday's contest and also celebrating her birthday on Saturday.
The first ECU batter Woodall faced laid down a sacrifice bunt, allowing the leadoff runner to advance to second. The next batter grounded out to third, holding the runner at second. A pirate drew a two-out, 3-2 count walk to get to Jarvis. On a 2-2 count, she was deemed out of the box on her swing, ending the ballgame. Woodall picked up her third save of the season while Mancha improved to 16-3, building on her already career-high win total.
Mancha and Woodall were the only two Knights to pitch this weekend, combining to allowed just four hits and post an ERA of 0.33 on the weekend. Together, they punched out 19 Pirates and held opponents to just a .063 batting average. UCF pitchers have held their opponents to three hits or less in each of the last seven games.
The 9-0 start to conference play is the best in UCF's time in The American. They've only had one better start in program history, starting out 10-0 in 2004 when they were members of the Atlantic Sun Conference.
The Knights have won 14 straight games against the Pirates improving their all-time record against them to 31-19.
UCF continues to lead the way in conference play, sitting with a perfect 9-0 record. Behind them is Wichita State with a 7-2 record in league play, followed by Houston with a 7-4-1 mark. South Florida sits in the four spot with a 5-4 record in The American and have a sizeable edge over the bottom three teams in the conference, as Tulsa checks in at 3-5-1 and ECU and Memphis at 2-10. The Knights are scheduled to play Houston, Tulsa and Wichita State in three-game sets to wrap up the regular season.
UP NEXT
The Knights will travel to Houston, their first road series since they went to South Florida from Mar. 25-27 and swept the Bulls. Houston was just swept by Wichita State this weekend and currently sit third in the conference standings. Game one of the series gets going on Friday at 7 p.m. ET, followed by game two on Saturday at 3 p.m. and game three on Sunday at 1 p.m. Following that trip, UCF will return to Orlando for their final home series of the regular season, hosting Tulsa from Apr. 29-May 1.
FOLLOW THE KNIGHTS
Stay tuned to UCF Softball on Facebook (/UCFSoftball), Twitter (@UCF_Softball) and Instagram (@UCF.Softball) for the latest on the UCF softball team.
GET THE APP
Never miss any UCF Knights news from your favorite team by downloading the free UCF Knights app right to your iOS or Android phone! The app provides personalized information for men's and women's teams, scores, schedules, loyalty programs and even breaking news. Download the app here.
