ORLANDO – The UCF softball team has hit its stride as of late, and on Wednesday the squad extended its win streak to double digits against Florida Atlantic.
The Knights (26-15, 10-8 Big 12) return to the Lone Star State this weekend for another conference road matchup against the Baylor Bears.
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 March 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.
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+.
UCF most recently defeated FAU and swept their three-game series on the road against the Houston Cougars, pushing their overall win streak to 10 in a row, and their Big 12 Conference win streak to six straight, with both representing the longest active streaks among Big 12 programs.
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.
Junior Kaitlyn Felton was nearly untouchable in clinching the Knights’ fifth shutout victory of the spring, bringing a no-hitter into the sixth frame in her eventual seven-inning, one-hit complete game shutout, leading the charge in the UCF softball team’s 1-0 win over Florida Atlantic at the UCF Softball Complex on Wednesday evening.
Felton’s masterpiece, meanwhile, represented her third effort of the season with at least seven innings pitched, as well as the fifth such start of her two-plus year career.
Her Wednesday outing also marked the second start of her collegiate career with one or fewer hits allowed in at least seven innings of work, joining her dominant 13-strikeout performance against the UMass Minutewomen Feb. 10, 2023, that also saw her go the distance with just one hit allowed.
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