FULLERTON, Calif. – Less than a week removed from the No. 2 UCLA Bruins' 14-0 run-rule defeat at the hands of the top-ranked Oklahoma Sooners Feb. 26, the Bruins' first loss of the 2023 season, the (RV) UCF softball squad gave second-ranked UCLA another scare Friday afternoon at Anderson Family Field.
Trailing by only a single run in the top of the sixth inning thanks to an impressive start against a top-two team by junior right-hander Grace Jewell, shortstop Jasmine Williams clubbed her second home run of the season off Brooke Yanez to tie the game at 1-1, and seemingly shift a bit of momentum to the Knights' dugout.
The run would be lone tally the Knights could muster against UCLA, though, as UCF fell in walk-off fashion to the Bruins, 2-1, before dropping its nightcap against the LMU Lions, 8-2, on the second day of play in the 2023 Judi Garman Classic.
Just one day after collecting her first career save in the Knights' tournament-opening win against Fresno State, Jewell was up to the challenge that a start against the previously-top-ranked Bruins presented. She spun a perfect bottom of the first inning and worked around a pair of two-out singles in the second to keep the game scoreless entering the third frame.
In the face of a UCLA rally, Jewell limited the damage to a single run in the bottom of the third, a two-out RBI single to center field. She induced a ground-ball fielder's choice to Williams at shortstop to escape the inning before holding the Bruins off the scoreboard in the fourth and fifth innings as well.
Thanks to Williams' leadoff solo homer to left-center field in the top of the sixth, UCF's offense finally broke through against Yanez. The long ball marked Williams' second homer in a Knights uniform and first since her second game of the season against the UMass Minutewomen Feb. 10.
Yanez quickly shook off the late run, retiring the next six Knights in order before UCLA mounted another late rally in the bottom of the seventh. A leadoff single and a subsequent walk in the seventh inning, followed by a wild pitch by reliever Angelina DeVoe and a shallow fly ball to left field that dropped for a base hit with two outs, were all the Bruins needed to sneak by the Knights and send UCF to a 2-1 walk-off defeat.
Despite a second strong start by a Knights starting pitcher Friday, this time by Kaitlyn Felton in the nightcap, the Knights were unable to run with the momentum created in the circle. The sophomore struck out the side in order in the top of the first inning and collected two more punchouts in both of the second and third innings.
By the time Felton had collected her eighth punchout, she had yielded just one unearned run in four innings of work, marking her second consecutive appearance with eight strikeouts (or more) and her third of the season.
Shaky defense from the Knights would be their undoing in the late innings, though, as a quartet of errors from the fourth inning on paved way for two Lions runs in the fifth inning and two more in the sixth, putting UCF in an 8-2 ditch from which it could not escape.
UP NEXT
The Knights will conclude play in the 2023 Judi Garman Classic with a 10:30 p.m. ET matchup against the host Cal State Fullerton Titans. The contest represents the fifth of six consecutive games away from the UCF Softball Complex for the Knights, before UCF travels to Gainesville, Florida, for a midweek tilt against the No. 8 (NFCA/USA Today) Florida Gators.
