ORLANDO – The No. 17 UCF softball team reached the 40-victory mark for the 2022 season with its 2-0 victory over Tulsa on Friday night to take game one of the series.
"Dominant pitching, great team defense and clutch hitting," said head coach Cindy Ball-Malone. "It's the name of our game these days. The confidence we have behind Gianna and Kama has really been something that's hard to describe but its fun and I love being a part of it and want us to continue it for as long as we can."
The only scoring of the ballgame occurred in the bottom of the third. Micaela Macario got things going with a leadoff walk. With one down, Kennedy Searcy climbed aboard with a single through the right side, putting two on for Jada Cody. Cody wasted no time, hitting a ball practically off the floor on the third pitch of the at bat down the left field line, allowing Macario to score. Doherty was up next and grounded out to second but drove Searcy in the process to make it a 2-0 UCF lead.
Cody's RBI was the 61st of the season, putting her in sole possession of second on UCF's single season RBI list and is now just five away from tying Stephanie Best's 66 recorded in 2003. She is now alone in seventh on UCF's career RBI list, totaling 107.
Searcy and Cody accounted for all of UCF's hits on the evening, each contributing a pair to the hit column.
Gianna Mancha was stellar again from the circle, tossing a two-hit complete game shutout to improve to 18-3 this season. She's recorded 13 complete games in 23 starts and has earned seven solo shutouts and was a part of a combined one this season as well. Her ERA continues to improve, now sitting at 1.53, which is currently the ninth best single-season ERA in program history.
The Knights are just one of four teams to reach the 40-win mark so far this season, the others being No. 1 Oklahoma, No. 4 Florida State and USC Upstate. This year's Knights squad is the second fastest in program history to reach 40 wins, only behind the 2015 team that finished the year with a record of 50-9.
"It's an awesome accomplishment," said Ball-Malone. "I think 40 wins is tough in itself but when you add in the schedule that we've had this year, it speaks volumes to what this group has done and how much fun we've had while doing it.
UP NEXT
The Knights will be back in action tomorrow for game two of their series with Tulsa. First pitch is scheduled for 4:00.
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