ORLANDO – The UCF softball team has hit its stride as of late, and on Wednesday the squad will look to push its win streak to double digits.
The Knights most recently swept their three-game series on the road against the Houston Cougars, pushing their overall win streak to nine in a row, and their Big 12 Conference win streak to six straight, with both representing the longest active streaks among Big 12 programs.
Now 25-15 and two games above .500 in Big 12 conference play (10-8), the Black and Gold will return home for a midweek matchup against the Florida Atlantic Owls before returning to the Lone Star State this weekend for another conference road matchup against the Baylor Bears.
The efforts of catcher Ashleigh Griffin and right-handed pitcher Sarah Willis paced the team on both sides of the ball throughout the squad’s perfect 4-0 showing last week, with the tandem becoming the first two Knights in program history to earn the Big 12 Conference’s weekly Player and Pitcher of the Week awards.
Willis shouldered a team-leading 11 innings between games one and three in Houston, allowing just two runs while striking out 10 and limiting her opposition to a .171 batting average-against en route to earning the third conference pitcher of the week award of her collegiate career.
The Ontario, California, native spun a six-inning one-hit complete game shutout in the series-opener, marking her first shutout of the season and her fifth complete game, and in game three notched the 200th strikeout of her UCF career, becoming the ninth pitcher in program history to eclipse the milestone.
Griffin, meanwhile, enjoyed a breakout three-game set in Space City, hitting a home run in all three games while producing an aggregate .600/.714/1.500 (6-for-10) line in UCF’s four games last week.
The catcher registered the first two consecutive games with a home run in her collegiate career in games one and two against the Cougars, and with her fourth home run of the season in Sunday’s finale, matched her single-season career high she set during her 2022 freshman campaign.
Center fielder Johneisha Rowe continued to represent a spark in the leadoff spot throughout the last week as well, hitting for a team-best .636 average (7-for-11) with one RBI and seven runs scored in UCF’s four wins.
Since she was appointed UCF’s regular atop the lineup in UCF’s nightcap against North Florida April 2, Rowe is hitting .500/.560/.500 (11-for-22) with 10 runs scored, three walks and six stolen bases in six tries in eight games. Her .500 average in that span leads the squad among players with at least 20 at-bats in that span.
Behind Willis in the circle, Kaitlyn Felton impressed in game two of the series against Houston, blanking the Cougars in a run-rule-shortened five-inning shutout that featured a personal single-game season high seven strikeouts.
Her seven punchouts represented her highest single-game total since she fanned eight against LMU during the Judi Garman Classic in Fullerton, California, March 3, 2023.
With her next start, Felton will match her single-season career high of 13 she set in 2023, and the junior right-hander currently sits just 14.1 innings away from tying her personal season-high 77.1 innings, which also came a season ago.
When the Knights meet Florida Atlantic Wednesday, UCF will clash with an Owls squad that leads the American Athletic Conference through its first 18 league games. Florida Atlantic is off to a 33-11 start overall, including a 13-5 mark within AAC play that sits one game ahead of Tulsa, Charlotte and North Texas, all deadlocked in a second-place tie with a 12-6 conference record.
Florida Atlantic emerged victorious in each of its first five conference series this spring against Wichita State, UAB, Memphis, ECU and Charlotte before most recently dropping two of three on the road against North Texas over the weekend.
UCF enters the midweek matchup looking to gain an edge in the all-time series between the two programs, as the Knights and Owls have evenly split the first 30 matchups with a 15-15 record. The Black and Gold have claimed each of the last five contests against Florida Atlantic, though, including a three-game series sweep against the Owls March 13-14, 2021 in the teams’ most recent meeting.
When the team travels to Waco, Texas, this weekend, UCF will square off against a Baylor Bears team that has dropped four of its first six Big 12 Conference series, including a recent three-game sweep at the hands of the No. 1 Texas Longhorns over the weekend. The Bears’ two series wins have come at home against the Iowa State Cyclones March 28-30 and Texas Tech Red Raiders April 5-7.
The Knights have met Baylor just seven times in program history and are looking to improve upon a 2-5 all-time record against the Bears. UCF last squared off against the Bears in a three-game series in Orlando Marcy 17-19, 2017, winning the finale by a 4-2 final score behind a 2-for-3 showing with one home run and two RBI by then-Knights catcher, and current assistant coach, Cassady Brewer.
With a win against Baylor this weekend, UCF would earn its first victory over a top-25 RPI ranked program this season, as the Bears checked in at No. 21 in the nation in the NCAA’s latest rankings Monday, April 15. The Knights enter the season’s 11th week at No. 31 in the nation in the NCAA’s RPI, representing the program’s highest ranking in 2024.
First pitch is scheduled for 5 p.m. against Florida Atlantic from the UCF Softball Complex Wednesday evening, and start times for the Knights’ three-game road series at Baylor are slated for 7:30 p.m. ET Friday, 3 p.m. ET Saturday, and 1 p.m. ET Sunday. All games will be streamed on Big 12 Now on ESPN+.
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