HOUSTON – The No. 19 UCF softball team suffered its first conference loss of the season, falling to Houston 9-8 in the series finale.
Houston struck first in their initial at bats of the ballgame, as Aspen Howie went deep to give the Cougars an early 1-0 lead.
UCF struck back with four runs in the top of the third as Justene Molina led off with a homer to right-center field, her first of the season. She has exactly one home run in each of her five seasons as she tied the game at 1-1. The inning continued as Denali Schappacher singled with one out, followed by a Kennedy Searcy single. Jada Cody drove both home as well as herself, launching a towering homer down the line to make it 4-1 in favor of the Knights.
The RBI was the 60th of the season for Cody as she now sits in a tie for second on UCF's single-season RBI list, matching Stephanie Best's 60 during the 2005 season. She is seven RBI away from setting the single season record.
The Black and Gold pushed the advantage to 7-1 in the fourth inning. Allyse Volpe led off the inning with a single, followed by a bunt single by Johneisha Rowe. Molina climbed aboard on a fielder's choice. On the ground ball, the shortstop threw the ball away and into the outfield, allowing Volpe to come around to score and allowing Rowe to advance to third. Molina swiped second, putting two runners in scoring position for Micaela Macario, who grounded out but drove in Rowe. Schappacher reached on a throwing error, allowing Molina to score to push across UCF's seventh run.
The Cougars retaliated with three runs of their own in the home half of the fourth. With two outs in the inning, a throwing error in the infield allowed a run to come across. The next batter, Rock Benavides singled to left center, driving in a pair of runs to make it a 7-4 game. The single chased Kaitlyn Felton, who entered in relief of starter Gianna Mancha. Felton finished her afternoon with no earned runs on three hits in an inning and two-thirds. The ball was handed over to Grace Jewell, who finished the inning unscathed.
Houston tied the game in the bottom of the fifth as Howie, who had a one out double earlier in the inning, advanced to third on a wild pitch and wound up scoring on an error on the throw down. Later in the inning, Becca Schulte hit a two-run homer to make it 7-7. The ball was turned over to Kama Woodall who finished the inning and kept Houston in check.
Molina struck again in the following half inning, launching her second home run of the afternoon to left field to put the Knights back in front 8-7. The go-ahead knock marked the first time this season that UCF hit three home run in a single game.
The Cougars pulled back in front on an unprecedented play. With the bases loaded, one out and Kama Woodall in the circle, Rowe recorded an out on a sacrifice fly to center. With her only play being to catch the runner tagging up from second to third, she fired to third but ended up hitting the runner, making the ball go awry and into shallow left field. Houston wound up plating two on the play to take a 9-8 lead.
Searcy led off the home half of the second with an infield single, giving UCF life in the final frame. Cody smashed a ground ball that was stopped by the third-baseman but reached on a fielder's choice as Houston couldn't turn two. Cody stole second soon after, but the ball got away into centerfield and was thrown out trying to advance to third. With two outs, Shannon Doherty lifted one to deep left-center field, where it took a leaping catch from a Cougar to keep the ball in the park.
The loss snaps UCF's 10-game winning streak and perfect 11-0 start to conference play. The 11-straight conference wins was the best start in program history to any league slate, topping the 2004 team who began Atlantic Sun play 10-0.
The Knights still lead the conference with a record of 11-1. They now sit just one game ahead of Wichita State who trounced Memphis this weekend. UCF will square off with the Shockers on the road to finish the 2022 campaign.
UCF finished the game with four errors, the first time they've done so since getting beat 12-11 by No. 5 Florida back on Feb. 27. In total, the Knights have had four games with four errors, going 2-2 in those contests.
Another streak that was snapped in the contest was UCF's opponent's hit totals. The Knights had gone nine straight games with their pitchers giving up three or less hits before surrendering 11 on Sunday.
UP NEXT
The Black and Gold will return to Orlando for the final homestand of the year, a three-game set against Tulsa. Game one gets underway on Friday at 6 p.m., followed by game two on Saturday at 4 p.m. and game three, which doubles as Senior Day, on Sunday at noon.
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