JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The No. 20 UCF softball team earned a 2-1 victory over North Florida in its final midweek and in-state contest of the season, improving to 31-10 on the year.
"Gianna's performance was a little different than normal," said Cindy Ball-Malone. "She only had the one strikeout, so she utilized her defense. I liked the one pitch outs. Micaela played some great defense behind her and we had some great plays in the outfield. It gave us some comfort even though we didn't score as many runs as we would've liked."
The Knights got back to their usual ways of scoring early, as Shannon Doherty produced a carbon copy of her final at bat against No. 5 Virginia Tech on Monday, smashing one down the right field line to score Jada Cody all the way from first. It was the 18th time in 41 games that the Black and Gold have scored in the opening frame.
UCF added another run in the top of the third as Ashleigh Griffin earned another RBI after earning three in Monday's contest. Griffin knocked one up the middle, scoring Cody from second to take a 2-0 lead.
The Ospreys grabbed a run back in the bottom of the third as North Florida's RBI leader, Paige Pfent, flew out to right field, driving in Takiya London on a sacrifice fly.
It was a pitching duel the rest of the way as the score remained the same. There was only one hit to be found by either side after the third inning, as both sides finished the game with three apiece. The Ospreys entered the contest fifth in the country in ERA with a 1.39 clip while the Knights came in 46th with a 2.64 mark.
Gianna Mancha was brilliant in the circle once again, tossing her ninth complete game of the campaign, giving her 26 in her career as a Knight. She is just two shy of tying Taylor Sawyer for eighth all-time at UCF. Mancha dropped her ERA on the season to 1.85 with the performance, which is on pace to be the lowest of her career.
While Cody didn't tally an RBI in the contest, she crossed home twice for the Knights. She currently holds the team lead with 32 runs scored this season.
UP NEXT
The Knights will return to conference play as they face Memphis for a three-game series at home, starting on Friday at 6 p.m.
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