GREENVILLE, N.C. – The American Athletic Conference has released their regular season awards, which has the Knights with five first teamers, three second teamers and three major awards.
Two Knights won major awards, while the coaching staff was honored as the conference's Coaching Staff of the Year by a unanimous vote. Justene Molina was honored as the conference's Defensive Player of the Year while Micaela Macario was named The American's Rookie of the Year.
Jada Cody and Kennedy Searcy were unanimously named First Team All-Conference while Molina, Gianna Mancha and Denali Schappacher joined the First Team as well. The second team saw Macario, Kama Woodall and Ashleigh Griffin listed. Macario and Griffin were unanimously named to the conference's All-Rookie Team.
DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR – JUSTENE MOLINA
Molina has been a rock at second base for the Knights this season, playing at second in all 52 of her starts. She did not make an error during conference play this season, recording 49 chances with 17 putouts and 32 assists. Molina has been the everyday starter for the Black and Gold since her arrival for the 2020 season. She has posted her best fielding percentage at UCF this season, posting an overall clip of .962.
Molina is the first Knight to win the honor in program history, as no player has won the award in any of the three conference that UCF had been a part of (A-Sun, Conference USA and The American) until now.
ROOKIE OF THE YEAR – MICAELA MACARIO
The freshman made almost an immediate impact on the Knights and currently has the fourth-highest batting average on the team and is second in steals. She's posted a .311 clip at the plate and is 19-for-20 in stolen bases. She is fifth on the team in RBI with 27 and has almost exclusively been in the nine spot of the lineup for the 2022 campaign. Macario has drawn more walks than times she's struck out and has started and played in 54 of the Knights 56 regular season contests.
Macario joins Cassady Brewer as the only Knight to be named as The American's Rookie of the Year as she won the honor back in 2016. The elite group continues with Mackenzie Audas who was named Conference USA Freshman of the Year in 2012 and Amber Lamb who was the A-Sun's Freshman of the Year in 2004.
COACHING STAFF OF THE YEAR – UCF
For the first time since 2015, the Knights' staff has earned the honor of being named the conference's Coaching Staff of the Year. Renee Luers Gillispie, Ruben Felix and Hillary Barrow were the first to win the honor in 2014 and did it the next year with Luers-Gillispie, Barrow, Tiffany Patteson and Hillary Barrow.
This year's staff of Cindy Ball-Malone, Tyler Heil, Whitney Jones and Kaija Gibson have the 2022 Black and Gold squad looking like that 2015 team. The 44 regular season victories is the most since 2015 and the 16-2 record in conference is the sixth time the Knights have finished with exactly 16 wins in conference play. UCF started the campaign by going 11-0 in conference, the fastest start to any conference slate in program history, topping the 2004 team's 10-0 start to A-Sun Play. The two conference losses joins the 2015 team with the fewest conference losses.
The 2022 team has pushed the envelope on the program's record rankings set back in the 2015 season. UCF has recently climbed to No. 17 in the USA Softball poll, just three spots shy of a tie of the team's record ranking of No. 14. The team nearly exceed the program's longest winning streak of 21, set back in 2002, making a run of 18 consecutive victories this season.
FIRST TEAM ALL-CONFERENCE
UCF has five players listed on the conference's first team, tied with Wichita State for the most in the conference this season. It's the most since the 2015 team saw seven members of the squad listed to the first team.
Cody was unanimously named to the first team this season and is her second trip to the squad. She has been nothing short of outstanding this season, leading the team in batting average (.358), home runs (11), RBI (64), doubles (14) and OPS (1.098). She may be having one of the best seasons a UCF batter has ever had and is currently two RBI away from tying Stephanie Best for the single-season record, which was set back in 2003. Not only is Cody on the RBI top 10 list in a single season, but she also falls into the top 10 in batting average, home runs, total bases and sacrifice flies. Cody has played all over the diamond for the Knights this season, starting 27 games at catcher, 21 at third base, seven in left field, and one at second base. Cody is one of three Knights to be named to the first team in different positions, making it last season at third base and this year as catcher. Brewer and Natalie Land are the only Knights to accomplish the same feat.
Searcy was unanimously named to the first team as well after having an incredible 2022 season. Her 2021 campaign ended early with an injury in April but still landed on the All-Rookie Team that year. She rebounded from the injury in a big way and carries a .315 batting average into the conference tournament. She's belted six homers and drove in 29 RBI, playing in all 56 of UCF's contests. She split time between third base and the designated player role this season. Searcy leads the team in batting average in conference play, hitting .373 with an OPS of 1.008. Searcy is currently seventh in on base in a single season at UCF, posting a .443 clip. She has also drawn 31 walks this season, tied for seventh-most in a campaign at UCF.
Schappacher is now a three-time First Team honoree as she made this year's top squad after batting .368 in conference play and .342 overall. She was a member of 2018 All-Rookie and All-Conference First Teams and jumped back onto the first team in 2021. The five-year Knight has worked her way up many of UCF's career charts, currently sitting second in career batting average with a .335 clip and is top five in career on base percentage, stolen bases, runs scored, triples and hits. She is one of only 10 Knights to ever reach the 200 hit mark and currently has 225. She's collected 53 of those hits this season and is three base knocks away from eclipsing her single-season best of 56 set last season. She has tallied four of her nine career triples in 2022 which is the highest total of her career. She's also set personal bests in on base and slugging percentage.
Mancha had a career year, setting personal bests in nearly every category possible. She was the go-to arm for the Knights this season, appearing in 34 games and posting a 1.70 ERA. She has reached the 20-victory mark for the first time in her career and has lost just three contests. The fifth-year player and third-year Knight has tossed 13 complete games with seven solo shutouts and two saves. She has rung up 163 batters, already 24 more than her best in a season. This is Mancha's first team nod as a Knight after earning a Second Team spot in 2021. She is a 0.09 ERA points away from jumping back into the single season list in UCF's record book. Mancha has had a brilliant three seasons as a Knight and is top 10 in wins, complete games, shutouts, strikeouts, saves, innings pitched, ERA, strikeouts per seven innings and lowest batting average against.
Not only has Molina been solid with the glove to win her the Defensive Player of the Year, but she has also had a great year at the plate. Coming into the year, Molina only had four career home runs. This year, her three homers came in less than a one-month span, with all of them coming in conference play. Her .299 batting average is .065 points higher than last season's and she's nearly doubled her on base and slugging percentages from 2021.
SECOND TEAM ALL-CONFERENCE
The Knights saw three of their own selected to the Second Team this season.
Woodall has without a doubt had the best season of her career in her first year as a Knight. The ECU transfer has been a been a big part of the elite one-two pitching punch that UCF has boasted all season. She has nearly doubled her career-high in victories, posting a 16-4 mark thus far. Her ERA is nearly 1.00 better than her career best, chalking up a 2.10 mark in 2022. Her relief appearances against No. 12 Georgia and No. 5 Virginia Tech played a huge role in shaping the Knights season.
Griffin earned a spot on the Second Team as a freshman after playing behind the dish and serving as the DP. After a tough start to the season, Griffin went on to post 31 RBI and three homers, batting .276 along the way. She has walked more than she has struck out and has been an important piece in the heart of UCF's lineup.
The freshman of the Year in Micaela Macario also made the Second Team. Brewer, who was the only other Knight to earn Rookie of the Year, went on to make the first or second team in all four of her years at UCF.
ALL-ROOKIE TEAM
Macario and Griffin were both unanimously selected to the conference's All-Rookie Team. It's the second straight year that the Knights have had two players named to the All-Rookie squad and the fourth overall time that multiple members of the Black and Gold have been named.
FULL LIST OF AMERICA ATHLETIC CONFERENCE REGULAR SEASON AWARDS
Player of the Year
Addison Barnard, Wichita State
Defensive Player of the Year
Justene Molina, UCF
Pitcher of the Year
Georgina Corrick, South Florida*
Rookie of the Year
Micaela Macario, UCF
Coaching Staff of the Year
UCF*
All-Conference First Team
P – Gianna Mancha, UCF
P – Georgina Corrick, South Florida*
C – Jada Cody, UCF*
1B – Neleigh Herring, Wichita State
1B – Kylie Norwood, Tulsa
2B – Justene Molina, UCF
3B – Kennedy Searcy, UCF*
SS – Sydney McKinney, Wichita State*
OF – Denali Schappacher, UCF
OF – Alexis Johns, South Florida
OF – Addison Barnard, Wichita State
OF – Lauren Lucas, Wichita State
DP/U/Non-P – Lauren Mills, Wichita State
All-Conference Second Team
P – Kama Woodall, UCF
P – Kenna Wilkey, Houston
P – Erin McDonald, Wichita State
C – Kati Ray Brown, Houston
IF – Micaela Macario, UCF
IF – Becca Schulte, Houston
IF – Abby Jones, Tulsa
IF – Jessica Garcia, Wichita State
IF – Zoe Jones, Wichita State
OF – Taudrea Sinnie, East Carolina
OF – Paige Hulsey, Houston
OF – Gracie Morton, Memphis
DP/U/Non-P – Ashleigh Griffin, UCF
All-Rookie Team
P – Jordan Hatch, East Carolina
P – Alison Cooper, Wichita State*
C/DP – Ashleigh Griffin, UCF*
IF – Micaela Macario, UCF*
IF – Celeste Wood, Tulsa
OF – Kailyn Bearpaw, Tulsa
*denotes unanimous selection
UP NEXT
The Knights await their matchup at the American Athletic Conference Championship, as they've earned a bye into the semifinals with the regular season crown. They will face either fourth-seeded Houston or fifth-seeded Tulsa in the semifinal on Friday at 1 p.m. ET.
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