ORLANDO – The UCF softball team’s three-game road series against the Houston Cougars wasn’t the only sweep the Knights came away with this week.
On the heels of their respective standout performances against Jacksonville and in Houston that led the Knights to their 4-0 record last week, catcher Ashleigh Griffin and right-handed pitcher Sarah Willis swept the Big 12 Conference’s Week 10 Player and Pitcher of the Week awards, becoming the first two Knights in program history to earn the weekly honors since UCF’s jump to the Big 12 this season. With the two winners, UCF joined Oklahoma and Texas as the third school to sweep both weekly league honors so far this season.
Willis’ Big 12 Pitcher of the Week award represents the third weekly honor of her collegiate career, after she was twice named American Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Week last season. This week’s recognition also represents the second time in as many series that Willis has been honored with a conference pitcher of the week award after facing the Houston Cougars.
Griffin earned the first Conference Player of the Week award of her career, after being named to The American’s weekly Honor Roll twice during her freshman 2022 season.
The catcher paced UCF’s offense throughout her team’s four games, hitting .600/.714/1.500 (6-for-10) with three home runs, seven RBI and 15 total bases, leading the team in each category while also scoring six times and drawing four walks against just one strikeout in four starts. Her 15 total bases and 1.500 slugging percentage led all Big 12 players during the week.
Griffin homered in each of UCF’s three games in Houston, and with her third long ball matched her single-season career high of four she set during her freshman 2022 campaign.
The series marked the first time the redshirt-sophomore had homered in consecutive games in her young career, and she also notched her second three-hit game of the season and the third of her career in game two against Houston April 13.
Willis, meanwhile, picked up right where she left off against Houston in 2023. In earning her second AAC Pitcher of the Week award last season, the right-hander threw the first seven-inning perfect game in program history and totaled 14 scoreless innings while yielding only two hits and striking out seven against the Cougars in Orlando a season ago.
This past weekend in Houston, Willis began the series with a bid for her second no-hitter against the Cougars in as many seasons, finishing with a six-inning one-hit complete game shutout in UCF’s 9-0 run-rule victory Friday night. She took a no-hitter into the fourth inning and yielded only a leadoff single in the frame while tiptoeing around four walks in the winning effort.
The right-hander was tabbed for the start in Sunday’s finale by head coach Cindy Ball-Malone as well, and recorded the 200th strikeout of her Knights career in the bottom of the first inning, becoming the ninth pitcher in program history to eclipse the milestone.
She spun five innings of two-run ball in the series finale Sunday, collecting four more strikeouts to earn her second win in three days. In total, Willis threw a team-leading 11 innings over the course of the Knights’ four games, posting a 1.27 ERA (2 ER) with 10 strikeouts and limiting her opposition to a .171 batting average-against (6-for-35).
Her two wins during the week tied for the most of any league pitcher, and her 1.27 ERA represented the lowest of any Big 12 pitcher to throw six or more innings in Week 10.
UP NEXT
The Knights look to push their season-long win streak to 10 straight in their Wednesday home midweek contest against the Florida Atlantic Owls. First pitch is slated for 5 p.m. from the UCF Softball Complex, and will be streamed on Big 12 Now on ESPN+.
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