ORLANDO, Fla. – Riding the high of its perfect weekend and five-game win streak, the (RV) UCF softball team will conclude its seven-game homestand Tuesday evening with a doubleheader against the visiting Rutgers Scarlet Knights.
The Knights righted the ship during the first five games of their homestand over the weekend, responding to a five-game losing streak with wins in each of their five games against the Toledo Rockets, Kennesaw State Owls and North Dakota Fighting Hawks during the UCF Round Robin tournament.
The five games saw a reinvigorated Knights offense explode for 39 runs in support of a pitching staff that yielded just seven, as UCF moved back above .500 at the season's official midway point with a 15-13 overall record.
Freshman utility infielder Aubrey Evans spearheaded the offensive charge for the Knights, hitting .429 (6-for-14) with five doubles, eight RBI and 11 total bases while also drawing four walks and striking out just once.
Evans' weekend was highlighted by a three-double display in the Knights' doubleheader nightcap against Kennesaw State March 11, leading UCF to an 11-5 win over the Owls with her three hits and five RBI, which mark a single-game season high for any Knights player thus far.
Redshirt senior shortstop Jasmine Williams and junior utility player Kennedy Searcy also enjoyed breakout weekends at the plate, as the former provided a spark out of the leadoff spot with a pair of first-inning home runs and a double in her three leadoff at-bats against Toledo and Kennesaw State Saturday and North Dakota on Sunday.
Searcy produced a 5-for-11 stretch in four games against Toledo, Kennesaw State and North Dakota, including back-to-back two-hit games and a combined three RBI. She also recorded her first triple of the season Sunday morning against the Fighting Hawks after lining a 3-2 pitch to the right field corner in the bottom of the second inning that plated fellow junior Chloe Evans.
The Knights' pitching staff continued its run of dominance in the circle as well, as Grace Jewell, Sarah Willis, Angelina DeVoe and Kaitlyn Felton combined to post a 1.40 ERA (6 ER) in an even 30 innings of work. The quartet collected 22 strikeouts against just nine walks and yielded an opponent batting average of .228.
Jewell etched another chapter in her resurgent junior season, throwing a career-high-tying seven scoreless innings Friday night against Toledo in authoring her third career complete game shutout and her second of the season. Among qualified starters, Jewell represents the Knights ERA leader through 28 games with an overall mark of 2.46 (42.2 IP, 15 ER).
Willis also added on to her recent stretch of brilliance with 10 innings over the weekend, yielding just one run on six hits with seven strikeouts. She punctuated her tournament play in style, spinning a five-inning, one-hit complete game shutout against Kennesaw State Sunday afternoon, marking the first game of her career with five or more innings pitched and one hit or fewer allowed. The duo of Willis and Jewell combined to allow just one run in 20 innings of work throughout the tournament, issuing just three walks and striking out 12.
Rutgers, meanwhile, makes the trip to Orlando sporting a 17-8 overall record, but with losses in each of its last four games, three of which have come against No. 8 Florida and No. 24 Louisiana.
The Knights will meet the Scarlet Knights for the sixth time in program history, looking to add another win to their 4-1 record against Rutgers in the first five matchups. The two programs have not met since Feb. 12, 2016, a contest the Knights won 4-1 in their second game of the season.
Junior Kyleigh Sand, freshman Ryann Orange and junior Morgan Smith represent the Scarlet Knights' offensive leaders through 25 games, with Sand's .451/.521/.500 line and 1.021 OPS leading the charge.
Orange leads the team with 45 total bases, and her 10 extra-base hits are tied for the team lead with Smith, who has produced a .306/.376/.542 line herself.
In the circle, Rutgers has relied mostly upon the trio of Smith, freshman Raimy Gamsby, graduate student Jaden Vickers. Gamsby has racked up the largest workload to this point, producing a 1.69 ERA (12 ER) in a team-leading 49.2 innings. Her 41 strikeouts also lead the squad, and she has limited opposing hitters to just a .211 average.
Vickers and Smith round out the usual rotation for the Scarlet Knights with ERAs of 2.88 and 3.86, respectively, in 34 and 32.2 innings of work.
First pitch of Game 1 is slated for 4 p.m. from the UCF Softball Complex, with Game 2 scheduled to begin shortly after.
