ORLANDO – The No. 20 UCF softball team secured a series win over Memphis with a second straight shutout over the Tigers, picking up the 6-0 win on Saturday.
"Good pitching performance from Kama and I liked how Grace came in and kept it going," said head coach Cindy Ball-Malone. "Defensively, we're making some really great plays. We got to see Justene flash some leather as well as Micaela and Kennedy. I know we scored six runs, but I think that we've got a little more in us. We're still making some mistakes that we shouldn't be making at this point in the season. I'd like to see us clean that up in tomorrow's game and the remainder of our conference schedule."
The Knights got going early in the ballgame, scoring in the first inning once again. Johneisha Rowe led off with her third double of the year, sending the ball into left field. Jada Cody sent one the other way, dumping it into shallow right field to advance Rowe to third. Cody swiped second, putting two runners in scoring position early. Shannon Doherty hit a ground ball back at the pitcher, who in turn threw home to erase Rowe, putting runners at the corners. Doherty swiped second ahead of an Ashleigh Griffin walk to load the bases for Deanli Schappacher. On a full count with two down in the inning, Schappacher tucked her fourth double of the campaign just inside the third base bag, sending Cody and Doherty into score for the 2-0 lead. Her two RBI on the hit put her at 13 for the season, a career high, bringing her total to 50 in her five seasons as a Knight.
UCF was right back at it in the second as Micaela Macario reached on a one-out bunt single, followed by a Rowe walk and a Kennedy Searcy single, loading the bases for Cody. The nation's RBI leader smashed one to the warning track, which likely would have been a home run if not for the 20+ miles per hour wind gusts that kept occurring throughout the ballgame. Cody knocked in a run on the play, earning another RBI to the tally. The throw in from center went awry, allowing Rowe to scamper home as well to make it a 4-0 contest.
Things were quiet until the bottom of the fifth where Cody led off the inning with her 11th double of the season. Doherty followed her up with an infield single and another stolen bag. Only one of the two runners came home to score in the inning as Ashleigh Griffin earned an RBI on a groundout to the pitcher to make it 5-0.
Cody earned her second RBI of the afternoon with a single through the left side in the bottom of the sixth, a shot that glanced off a diving Tiger's glove, allowing Macario to score from second to reach the final score of 6-0.
Kama Woodall tossed six lights-out innings in the circle, improving her record to 12-2 this season. While she tallied just one strikeout, she held the Tigers to just two hits and two free passes. Woodall now boasts two back-to-back outings of six innings, with the other coming in relief against No. 5 Virginia Tech in which she held the Hokies scoreless while striking out four in the Knights' 11 inning victory.
Grace Jewell came in relief and kept the shutout intact. Aside from a soft bloop single up the middle, Jewell was flawless in the final frame, needing just 15 pitches against four batters while earning a strikeout in the process.
Cody is up to 56 RBI this season and leads the nation in said category by five. She is now within 10 of Stephanie Best's single-season record at UCF with 66, a mark she set back in 2003. Best also holds the mark for second-most RBI in a season, posting 60 in 2005. To put into perspective the remarkable season Cody is having, she has now doubled her 2021 RBI of 28, which at the time was her career high. Cody finished the day 3-for-3 with two runs and two RBI, elevating her batting average this year to .362.
The Knights stole a season-high six bases as a team in Saturday's game. Doherty swiped a pair of bases, along with stolen bags from Rowe, Cody, Schappacher and Macario.
UP NEXT
The Knights will go for their second sweep in two tries in conference play as they host Memphis in the series finale at noon on Sunday.
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