ORLANDO, Fla. – When her team needed her the most, Chloe Evans came through.
The No. 15 UCF Knights softball team, fresh off collecting its first win of the season in its second game by a comfortable 7-1 margin over the UMass Minutewomen on Day Two of the Black and Gold Classic, had watched an equally dominant start to the nightcap against RV Boise State slowly slip away.
Enter Evans. With her team trailing 8-7 and Shannon Doherty on first with nobody out in the bottom of the seventh, Chloe did what head coach Cindy Ball-Malone brought her to Orlando to do. The junior transfer from Minnesota crushed a 3-1 offering from the Broncos' (0-2, 0-0) Amber Thornton over the left-center field wall at just past 12:30 a.m. local time, ending a marathon three-hour, 39-minute minute 9-8 Knights win that featured 17 runs, 21 hits and 11 combined pitchers at the UCF Softball Complex.
"With a big game on the line, I felt that I knew that I needed to be calm and collected in myself and not make the moment bigger than it needed to be," Evans said. "Obviously, us being down one run, put us at a little bit of a halt, but we talked about keeping our foot on the gas, and that's exactly what we did in that moment."
The Seymour, Wis., native's crucial blast provided not only a thrilling, late-night win and the Knights' (2-1, 0-0) first walk-off victory of the year, but also more than a bit of relief for her team after UCF surrendered seven unanswered runs and lost its early 7-1 lead entering the final frame.
Led by Evans, who also plated the game's first run via a first-inning double that narrowly missed leaving the yard itself, UCF continued its offensive momentum from its early game against UMass, scoring a trio of runs in the first inning and four more in the third.
Designated player Kennedy Searcy alone tacked on four more runs following Evans' early double, slugging a two-run double and a two-run blast of her own, and senior Allyse Volpe came off the bench with a crucial two-run double to lift the Knights to their six-run advantage.
The Broncos slowly climbed their way back into the affairs, though, scoring twice in the fifth inning and five more times in the seventh to take the lead.
"That was really huge," Evans said of the Knights' ability to come back from the Broncos' late rally. "We saw them playing earlier today. I think that us trying to stick to a plan and be our best selves at the plate was really important, and I think that we did that today."
Evans' walk-off punctuated a two-win day for the Knights, as sophomore right-hander Kaitlyn Felton headlined UCF's 7-1 win over the UMass Minutewomen in the game prior. Representing the returning pitcher with the most collegiate experience by innings entering the season after she produced a 3.36 ERA in 50 innings of work a year ago, Felton quickly put to rest any doubts about an early sophomore slump.
The righty fanned 13 Minutewomen using 113 pitches in the first seven-inning complete game of her young career. Her 13 punchouts marked the most by an individual Knights pitcher since Gianna Mancha's no-hitter on the road against the Memphis Tigers April 23, 2021.
Even that could have been enough, but Felton was again called upon to close out the top of the seventh inning of the Knights' nightcap just before Evans' homer and picked up her second win of the day.
In support of Felton, the Knights similarly produced a seven-run display against UMass. Senior transfer Jasmine Williams clubbed her first home run in a Knights uniform and Jada Cody tripled in Katie Burge as part of a two-run sixth, shortly after a pair of bases-loaded walks and a two-run single by Shannon Doherty.
UP NEXT
The Knights will conclude their gameplay during the Black & Gold Classic in the last of four games at the UCF Softball Complex against RV Ohio State, with first pitch slated for 5 p.m.