UCF Softball 2024 Position-by-Position Preview

A senior class that features 11 members and a wealth of experience headlines a much-anticipated 2024 spring season for head coach Cindy Ball-Malone and the UCF softball team, coming on the heels of the program’s third consecutive 40-plus-win season and NCAA Tournament berth in 2023.

PITCHERS

The Knights return 403.1 of their total 404.1 innings pitched during the 2023 season, a welcome sight for Ball-Malone and her coaching staff after the squad graduated 323 innings of work with Kama Woodall and Gianna Mancha in 2022.

RHP/OF Sarah Willis, the reigning 2023 AAC Pitcher of the Year who also garnered First Team All-Region and All-Conference honors, spearheads the Knights efforts in the circle. The transfer from Washington enjoyed a breakout 2023 campaign, racking up 124 strikeouts while producing a 1.65 ERA, good for 35th in the nation, and yielding only 4.69 hits per seven innings, the 38th-lowest mark in the country.

The then-junior threw 17 innings spanning three games during the 2023 AAC Tournament, allowing only two runs en route to her selection as the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, and also spun the first seven-inning perfect game in program history against the Houston Cougars April 28.

Willis also proved her worth at the plate, recording a .392 slugging percentage in a season-high 79 at-bats, including four home runs.

Fellow senior right-hander Grace Jewell also enters the 2024 season looking to build upon a breakout 2023 slate. Jewell earned NFCA Third Team All-Region honors for the first time in her collegiate career a year ago, spinning a season-high 122.2 innings after combining for 45 between her first two collegiate seasons.

Ball-Malone also cashed in on the pitching transfer portal twice over the summer, bringing in redshirt-senior pitcher and designated player Sona Halajian and southpaw Ava Justman from Cal and Wisconsin, respectively.

Halajian joins the Knights after spending the last three seasons with the Golden Bears, during which she was a Second Team All-Pac-12 and First Team All-Region selection as a redshirt-sophomore in 2022.

She did a bit of everything against the eventual national champion Oklahoma Sooners in the NCAA Norman Regional May 21, yielding just two hits in 1.2 innings of work while driving in two of Cal’s three runs with a third-inning two-run single.

Halajian brings 303 innings worth of experience in the circle to Orlando, accruing 204 strikeouts and 18 complete games. She has also made her presence known at the plate as a two-way player like Willis, boasting a career .292/.387/.553 slashline (86-for-295) including 33 extra-base hits, 163 total bases and 68 RBI.

Justman comes to Orlando following a pair of seasons with the Badgers, during which she notched a career 3.50 ERA in 78 collegiate innings. The majority of her collegiate experience came during her sophomore 2022 slate, a season that saw her spin 62.1 innings while recording a 3.93 ERA with 39 strikeouts.

The Northridge, California, native spun a trio of complete games in 2022 as well, including a five-inning effort against the Knights in the 2022 Clearwater Invitational. She also stymied Utah on the road March 16 and threw seven innings against Southern Utah March 12.

Junior right-hander Kaitlyn Felton also returns for her third season donning the Black and Gold, fresh off a season-high 77.1 innings of work in her sophomore season. Felton kicked off her 2023 campaign in emphatic fashion, striking out a career-best 13 UMass Minutewomen Feb. 10 and locking down a two-inning save against the Ohio State Buckeyes the next night.

Sophomore right-hander Katelyn Cochran represents the final member of the UCF pitching staff making her return in 2024. She received her first taste of collegiate experience throughout the Knights’ gauntlet of a 2023 schedule, earning the start against the Blue Devils in Clearwater before also throwing a scoreless frame against the then-No. 2 Oklahoma State Cowgirls March 19.

Freshman right-hander Isabella Vega joins the returning Knights hurlers as the final newcomer, also a member of the Knights’ 2022 recruiting class that was ranked No. 16 in the nation by Extra Inning Softball. Vega, a native of Bradenton, Florida, was named to the Herald Tribune All-Area Team and earned FACA District 16 Class 3A Player of the Year honors following her junior 2022 season.

CATCHERS

Similar to her choices within the pitching staff, Ball-Malone has plenty of options to turn to behind the plate when filling out her daily lineup cards. Fifth year senior Jada Cody, having started 206 of her 208 total games as a Knight over the past four seasons, figures once again to see significant time at catcher with the benefit of her vast experience and familiarity with her pitching staff.

Cody, tabbed to USA Softball’s Preseason Collegiate Player of the Year Top 50 watch list while also making the preseason top 100 player rankings by D1Softball (No. 90) and Softball America (No. 89), enters the 2024 season looking to punctuate a storied Knights career on a high note.

The Murrieta, California, native needs two home runs to claim sole possession of second place on the UCF all-time career list, and ranks within the top four on the Knights’ career batting average list (.328), on-base percentage list (.417) and slugging percentage list (.576).

Carson Frier returns for her junior season after shouldering a significant load opposite Cody in 2023. The then-sophomore was behind the plate for Willis’ perfect night against Houston and Jewell’s no-no against the Sun Devils, and appeared in a season-high 50 of the Knights’ 61 games. She represented a steady hand behind the plate in her first season of regular game action, committing only one error in recording a .995 fielding percentage.

Ashleigh Griffin also makes her long-awaited return to the field after taking a redshirt in 2023 due to injury. The Newnan, Georgia played a significant role in the Knights’ 2022 run to the Norman Super Regional, slashing .281/.387/.432 (41-for-146) with 10 doubles and four home runs in 56 games.

The trio is joined by newcoming freshman Kiley Strott, whose high school career was highlighted by selections to the First Team All-Conference squad, Offensive Player of the Year and the 7A All-State Team en route to her team’s 2021 district championship at Lake Brantley High School.

POSITION PLAYERS

Another one of the Knights’ longest-tenured players returns for her final season at first base in Shannon Doherty. The Coral Springs, Florida, native embarks on her fifth collegiate season in 2024, having played at least 60 games in each of her last three campaigns.

Knights right fielder Chloe Evans, on the heels of a standout debut season in Orlando in 2023, looks for an encore this spring after tying the Knights’ single-season triples record with eight three-baggers, also catapulting herself into a share of sixth place on the Knights’ all-time list.

She also hit 16 doubles, good for the second-most in a single season in program history, and paced the squad in batting average (.355), slugging percentage (.624), total hits (66), RBI (49) and total bases (116). Evans joined Johneisha Rowe and Jasmine Williams as the third Knight to appear in each of UCF’s 61 games, as well.

Williams joined Evans in making her Orlando debut a year ago after coming to UCF from Oregon and locked down the position at shortstop, starting each of UCF’s 61 games. She aided in turning the fourth-most double plays in a single season in program history (19), and in a personal season-high 214 total chances vaulted herself up to ninth on the UCF single-season assists list with 132, also a season best mark in her four-year career.

Offensively, Williams enjoyed her best season since her freshman campaign at Oregon, slashing .302/.325/.451 in a season high 182 at-bats, adding 15 extra-base hits, 82 total bases and 28 RBI. She was named to the AAC’s All-Tournament team after hitting a pair of home runs against Tulsa and Memphis, and also left the yard with a key game-tying solo home run in the sixth inning against then-No. 2 UCLA March 3, 2023.

Rowe made at least 60 appearances for the second consecutive season, following her 2022 slate that saw her appear in 62 games. She has served as a consistent threat to reach base throughout her first two seasons in Orlando following her transfer from FGCU, recording an on-base percentage north of .331 in both of her last two campaigns, and in 2023 stole at double-digit bases for the fourth straight year to begin her collegiate career.

She needs 17 more steals to eclipse 100 in her career, and this year will be looking for her fourth straight season with at least 40 hits.

Kennedy Searcy, one of coach Ball-Malone’s trusted utility players, produced an AAC First Team All-Conference 2023 campaign, slashing .291/.359/.376 (48-for-165) with a season-high-tying 17 stolen bases.

The Jacksonville, Florida, native recorded a season-long 12-game hit streak from April 15–May 11, during which she hit .462, and made the AAC All-Tournament team as well with a pair of triples and three runs scored en route to the Knights’ conference tournament title. She also tied her previous season high with three triples.

The final member of coach Ball-Malone’s 2023-24 transfer class, a group that was ranked No. 14 in the nation by D1Softball.com, comes to Orlando on the heels of two standout seasons with the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns in Stormy Kotzelnick.

After taking a redshirt in her first season at Washington, the Carmel, Indiana, native broke out with an All-Sun Belt Second Team season in Louisiana in 2022, leading the Cajuns in RBI (51) and extra-base hits (30) while slashing .356/.419/.644 (69-for-194). In two years with Louisiana, Kotzelnick also racked up 35 stolen bases in 43 tries in her 118 total games.

Savannah Adams, following an impressive freshman campaign in 2022 did one better in 2023, setting personal season-bests in average (.300), slugging percentage (.575), hits (24), doubles (4), total bases (46) and RBI (22) in a season-high 41 appearances, including 25 starts.

The La Mirada, California, native was recognized as the AAC’s Player of the Week for the period of Feb. 20-26 after hitting .583/.583/1.417 (7-for-12) in six games with one double, three home runs and six RBI against Stetson, Gardner-Webb, Louisville and Purdue.

Katie Burge represents another member of Ball-Malone’s utility corps, having demonstrated her sure-handed ability to play virtually anywhere on the diamond. The Miami, Florida, native enjoyed her best season with the Knights in 2023, setting personal season highs in average (.304), slugging percentage (.420), total hits (21), doubles (2) and triples (3), while reaching base at a .329 clip.

Having appeared in a season-high 47 games, Burge swatted four extra-base hits in the span of seven games Feb. 19-25, including a key leadoff, sixth-inning pinch-hit triple against Mississippi State that aided the Knights in their 6-5 win over the Bulldogs in the Clearwater Invitational.

Macy Miles also returns for her second season donning the Black and Gold after receiving her first taste of collegiate action as a two-way player in 2023. She earned the first six strikeouts of her collegiate career in the circle a year ago, including two in an inning of work against the then-No. 2 Cowgirls March 19.

Sierra Humphreys, Taylor Kittleman, Alexis Morgan, Samantha Rey and Samantha Delhoyo make up the remaining members of the Knights’ highly-touted 2022 recruiting class, all looking to take advantage of their opportunities to make their mark in the first collegiate season of their respective careers.

OPENING WEEKEND

The Knights kick off their 2024 season Thursday, Feb. 8 with a doubleheader against Howard and UConn to open the squad’s annual Black & Gold Classic at the UCF Softball Complex. UCF will also meet Seattle Feb. 9, UConn once more Feb. 10 and will close the tournament against Georgia State Sunday, Feb. 11 at 12 p.m. ET. All games will be streamed on ESPN+.

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