ORLANDO, Fla. – "We just need to keep the 'mo.'"
When referring to the recent momentum the No. 22 UCF softball team has collected throughout the first two days of the 2023 Knights Classic tournament and her team's goals moving forward, right fielder Chloe Evans kept things short and to the point.
The Knights (8-7, 0-0 AAC) certainly have momentum on their side, as the group collected its third straight win Friday night in the first of its two scheduled games against the (RV) Louisville Cardinals this weekend, 4-3, at the UCF Softball Complex, thanks in no small part to Evans, her roommate Sarah Willis, and a timely sixth-inning hit courtesy of Kennedy Searcy.
"Team win, right?" said head coach Cindy Ball-Malone. "What I liked about our team was the fight that they had. They stayed to it and kept putting pressure on the defense, and it went our way."
With her team trailing 3-2 and two runners on base with two outs in the bottom of the sixth inning, Searcy strode to the plate. She worked her way into a decent hitter's count before lining a 2-1 pitch low and away to right-center field.
Jasmine Williams, who had singled herself three hitters earlier and advanced to second on a wild pitch, likely would have scored anyway, but a fielding error by Cardinals (6-4, 0-0 ACC) center fielder Korbe Otis ensured the tying, and go-ahead runs with Aubrey Evans hot on Williams' heels, would cross the plate.
"I just knew that I had one job, and I had to keep it simple and just get in there and do my thing," said Searcy. "I've been having a couple rough at-bats my last couple of games, but I knew in this moment it was really important for us to stay together, and I knew what I had to do for my team."
The clutch run-scoring hit provided a breath of fresh air for Searcy, who in her previous four games had gone 1-for-7 at the plate after beginning the season with five hits and four RBI in her first 10 at-bats spanning three games.
It also put the Knights' pitching staff on the right side of the ledger for the first time after UCF had been fighting all night to pull even with a Louisville squad that took an early 2-0 lead in the first inning against starter Grace Jewell.
Left-hander Angelina DeVoe, after receiving a full day off from pitching in either of the Knights' wins against Gardner-Webb Thursday, collected a crucial third out in the top of the first with the bases loaded, striking out Louisville left fielder Paige Geraghty.
The junior worked around a leadoff walk in the second inning and whiffed a pair of Cardinals in a perfect third, before Louisville solved DeVoe later in the fourth, tagging her for an RBI double to left-center field.
Willis, who started the contest in center field, represented UCF's second reliever of the evening and produced arguably her finest appearance in the circle in a Knights uniform. She quickly worked her way out of a two-one, none-out jam with a fielder's choice groundout and a strikeout looking, and cruised through perfect fifth and sixth frames.
She began the seventh with her fourth strikeout of the evening, representing her highest single-game total since fanning six on Opening Night against then-No. 10 Georgia, and collected the second out on another fielder's choice groundout after Louisville earned a one-out single.
She remained collected in the face of a subsequent walk and passed ball, and thanks to an impressive diving catch by Chloe Evans in right field, Willis hung on to seal UCF's third consecutive victory. In her season-high-tying three innings of work, Willis yielded only one hit and one walk while striking out four, and she did it utilizing just 50 pitches.
"I think that I definitely came out better throwing strikes today, but still I had [one walk]," Willis said. "So [I'm working on] getting those walks down. I think I did a better job coming out today, but I still have things to improve on and help the team get better."
Not to be lost in the late-inning heroics was a tape-measure solo home run off the bat of sophomore Savannah Adams, a blast well-beyond the left field wall that broke the ice for the Knights on the scoreboard in the bottom of the second inning on a 1-2 pitch.
After earning American Athletic Conference All-Tournament Team honors a year ago, Adams is off to a hot start in 2023, clubbing her second home run in her last three games, her third this season, and collecting at least one RBI for the third straight game. She has hit safely in eight of her first 10 games this season, including two multi-hit games, and enters Saturday's action slashing .476/.476/.952 (10-for-21).
"This was a huge team win, and I think everyone in the dugout was ready," Chloe Evans said. "Kennedy came up with a huge clutch hit, obviously 'Sav' with a big home run. We all contributed, and I think that it's really coming together, us stringing along hits, and it just needs to keep coming."
UP NEXT
No. 22 UCF will continue play in the 2023 Knights Classic with a scheduled matchup with the Purdue Boilermakers Saturday evening, with first pitch slated for 7 p.m. from the UCF Softball Complex. The Knights will conclude the tournament Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m. with a second tilt against Louisville.
