ORLANDO, Fla. – On the heels of the (RV) UCF softball team's recent six-game stint away from home, the Knights will return to the UCF Softball Complex Friday night to begin play in the UCF Round Robin tournament, marking the last of three neutral site tournaments hosted by the Knights in Orlando this season.
UCF will face off against the Toledo Rockets, North Dakota Fighting Hawks and Kennesaw State Owls this weekend, with the Penn Quakers also making the trip to the Sunshine State to partake in a pair of neutral site games Friday.
The Knights enter play this weekend looking to snap a skid that has included five straight losses and defeats in six of their last seven games. UCF weathered another challenging portion of its 2023 schedule throughout the last week, as four of its six opponents during its six-game road trip debuted within the top 20 teams in the nation in the NCAA's initial RPI rankings released Monday. UCF was slotted at No. 55 in the initial rankings.
The 10-13 Knights most recently dropped a low-scoring pitchers' duel with the No. 8 Florida Gators in Gainesville, Florida, Wednesday evening by a 3-0 final score, a contest that saw right-handed starter Sarah Willis continue her dominant stretch in the circle over the last two weeks.
Since Feb. 23, the Ontario, California, native has recorded a 0.75 ERA in 18.2 innings of work, allowing only two earned runs while racking up 24 strikeouts following her Wednesday effort that saw Willis allow two runs with five strikeouts in 4.2 innings.
The junior transfer's recent efforts have headlined a strong aggregate performance from the Knights' pitching staff of late, as UCF pitchers have combined for an even 3.00 ERA (39.2 IP, 17 ER) with 45 strikeouts against 20 walks with an opponent batting average of .256 during the Knights' last six games.
Sophomore right-hander Kaitlyn Felton has paced the team with 18 strikeouts in that span, posting a 2.56 ERA (13.2 IP, 5 ER) with only three walks in accompaniment. The Valrico, Florida, native has already surpassed her 32 strikeouts during her freshman campaign a year ago with 54 and counting this season, and currently sits one out shy of tying her season-high 50 IP from last season as well.
Head coach Jessica Bracamonte's Toledo Rockets squad enters the weekend's action at 4-9 overall, though also with wins against Northern Kentucky and No. 22 Northwestern (ESPN/USA Softball) during a 2-2 showing in the Louisville Softball Cardinal Classic over the weekend. UCF will face the Rockets for just the third time in program history, looking to collect its second win against Toledo.
Senior utility infielder Riley Mohr and junior shortstop Jenna Kroll pace the Rockets at the plate, with the former bringing a team-leading .375 average and the latter a team-leading .526 slugging percentage and .945 OPS to Orlando. Graduate student Erin Hunt has handled the majority of the duties in the circle for Toledo, with 44 strikeouts that rank second-most in the MAC, a 2.86 ERA (44 IP, 18 ER) and a 1.16 WHIP.
The Knights will meet the North Dakota Fighting Hawks for the first time in program history this weekend, a team that enters the tournament with just one win in its first 19 games this season, a Feb. 28 victory over Lindenwood by a 7-5 final score.
Senior catcher Cassie Castaneda is the lone player to appear in each of North Dakota's first 19 games and has recorded a team-leading .528 slugging percentage. Junior infielder Katie Joten paces the squad with a .389 on-base percentage, and senior catcher/first baseman Madison Pederson has recorded a team-leading .308 average.
In the circle, the trio of Makaela Carr, Camryn Lasota and Jackie Albrecht have covered most of North Dakota's innings thus far, with Carr posting a team-low 5.82 ERA (43.1 IP, 36 ER).
Kennesaw State brings a 6-13 record to Orlando, coming most recently off a 5-0 win over Georgia Southern after it went 0-3 during the I-75 Challenge against Southern Mississippi and Northern Iowa. UCF leads the all-time series with the Owls 3-2 going into the teams' first of two matchups.
Graduate student infielder Taylor Cates paces the team at the plate, boasting a team-leading OPS of .807 aided by an on-base percentage of an even .400 in her 19 games. Her five extra-base hits also mark the most of any Owl, including four doubles and one home run.
Freshman pitcher Kenley Hilleary has represented the most effective of Kennesaw State's pitchers, recording a 2.08 ERA (39 IP, 9 ER) accompanied by 42 strikeouts and 17 walks. She has also limited her opposition to just a .204 batting average against.
The UCF Round Robin
The Knights will also host several neutral site matchups throughout the weekend to round out the festivities at the UCF Softball Complex. The full schedule for the UCF Round Robin is as follows.
March 10
10:00 a.m. – Penn vs. North Dakota | Live Stats
12:30 p.m. – Penn vs. Toledo | Live Stats
3:30 p.m. – North Dakota vs. Kennesaw State | Live Stats
5:30 p.m. – Toledo vs. (RV) UCF | Live Stats
March 11
10:00 a.m. – North Dakota vs. Toledo | Live Stats
12:30 p.m. – North Dakota vs. Kennesaw State | Live Stats
3:30 p.m. – Toledo vs. (RV) UCF | Live Stats
5:30 p.m. – Kennesaw State vs. (RV) UCF | Live Stats
March 12
9:00 a.m. – North Dakota vs. (RV) UCF | Live Stats
11:00 a.m. – Kennesaw State vs. Toledo | Live Stats
1:00 p.m. – Kennesaw State vs. (RV) UCF | Live Stats