ORLANDO – Winners of four straight games and 11 of its last 12 contests overall, the UCF softball team is readying for its final regular-season home series of the 2023 campaign when the Knights will welcome the Houston Cougars to Orlando April 28-30.
UCF will also recognize and honor its 2023 senior class in a postgame ceremony following the series finale Sunday afternoon as part of its Senior Day festivities.
The Knights (30-19, 9-3 AAC) most recently finished off a three-game series sweep of their rival South Florida Bulls for the second consecutive season, and the first time in program history at home.
The sweep ballooned UCF's overall win streak against the Bulls to 11 straight games dating back to the Knights' 4-3 win over South Florida May 8, 2021, a stretch during which UCF has outscored the Bulls by an aggregate 51-12.
The Knights now lead the all-time series against their western rivals 23-19 in 42 all-time meetings, as well. The team also enters the weekend series against Houston with an RPI ranking of 32 as of Wednesday, April 26, including six wins against RPI top-50 teams (Wichita State, Michigan, Louisville, Ohio State, Boise State and Arizona State).
UCF's successful weekend was made possible by a dominant effort produced by the Knights pitching staff, led by junior transfer Sarah Willis. The right-hander was named to the American Athletic Conference's weekly Honor Roll for the fifth time this season for her efforts throughout the series, during which she posted a 0.50 ERA (14 IP, 1 ER) while collecting 11 strikeouts and limiting her opposition to a .143 batting average-against.
Following her standout weekend, Willis ranks third in the conference with a glistening 1.94 season ERA (97.2 IP, 27 ER), trailing only No. 19 Wichita State's Alex Aguilar (1.40) and South Florida's Payton Dixon (1.47). Willis also ranks first in The American with a 0.92 ERA in conference play, during which she has yielded only five earned runs in 38 innings while racking up 30 strikeouts and allowing a .161 batting average-against.
Fellow right-hander Grace Jewell also produced a strong start in game two of the series, tossing five innings of one-run ball while allowing just three hits and striking out three. Lefty Angelina DeVoe and right-hander Kaitlyn Felton both threw a scoreless inning in relief of Jewell, with the latter tallying her second save of the season in the Knights' 3-1 win.
Jewell also appeared in the series finale in relief of Willis, nailing down her third save of the campaign in a scoreless seventh inning to preserve the Knights' 10th shutout win of the season, a mark that ranks tied for first in The American with the Shockers.
Overall, UCF pitchers combined to post a 0.64 ERA in 22 innings against the Bulls over the weekend, allowing only two runs in the three games. The two runs allowed by the Knights are tied for the fewest the team has allowed in a three-game series this season (also two, at ECU March 31-April 2), and mark the fewest the Knights have allowed to the Bulls in a series in program history.
Offensively, Chloe Evans twice played the hero for UCF over the weekend, driving in both Knights runs in UCF's 2-1 win Friday evening, including her second walk-off hit of the season with her eighth-inning RBI single. The right fielder also produced the game-winning runs Sunday afternoon with an infield single that forced a Bulls error that allowed both runs to score in UCF's 2-0 win.
Evans was bestowed with AAC weekly Honor Roll honors for the second time this season for her contributions, and entering the weekend series against the Cougars, the Seymour, Wisconsin, native leads the team in average (.347), OPS (1.014), total hits (51), triples (6), RBI (38), total bases (90) and slugging percentage (.612).
The Knights will meet a Houston team that brings a 19-24 overall record, including a 6-6 mark within The American, to Orlando. The Cougars most recently were swept in their three-game home series against the Tulsa Golden Hurricane, though the team previously played a trio of close affairs against the conference-leading Shockers April 14-16, including taking the series finale by a 4-0 score in Wichita.
The Cougars own an RPI of 108 entering the weekend series with three RPI top-50 wins (Wichita State, Charlotte and South Dakota State). The team ranks within the top three in The American in a handful of offensive categories, including on-base percentage (.364, 2nd), batting average (.281, 3rd), doubles (53, 3rd) and runs per game (4.28, 3rd).
Sophomore utility infielder Turiya Coleman has represented the Cougars' most potent offensive threat thus far, recording a team-best .419/.506/.682 (54-for-129) slashline accompanied by a 1.188 OPS and 18 extra-base hits. Her .419 average ranks second-best in The American, behind only the Shockers' Sydney McKinney's .524, and her 54 total hits are tied for third-most in the conference.
Graduate student right-hander Kenna Wilkey has shouldered the majority of the workload in the circle, throwing 162.2 of the Cougars' 293.1 total innings pitched. She boasts a team-best 2.45 ERA (57 ER) while collecting a conference-leading 158 strikeouts and limiting her opposition to a .230 batting average-against.
Last season, UCF went 3-1 in its four meetings against the Cougars, winning the three-game series 2-1 before topping Houston 4-2 in eight innings during the American Athletic Conference Tournament Semifinals on the strength of Savannah Adams' two-run walk-off home run.
The tournament victory boosted the Knights to a 30-21 record against Houston all-time, including an 8-2 record in the teams' last 10 meetings.
First pitch from the UCF Softball Complex is slated for 6 p.m. for the Friday evening series-opener, followed by 4 p.m. and 12 p.m. start times Saturday and Sunday, respectively.