Softball Prepped for Season-Opening Black & Gold Classic

ORLANDO – On the heels of its inaugural season as a member of the Big 12 Conference and a program-record fourth consecutive NCAA Tournament berth, the UCF softball team is set to kick off the 2025 campaign with its annual season-opening Black & Gold Classic tournament at the UCF Softball Complex.

UCF will notably renew its recent rivalry with No. 12 Georgia, squaring off against the Bulldogs as part of an Opening Knight doubleheader that also features a contest against CSU Bakersfield. The Knights will meet James Madison, NC State and Illinois throughout the weekend as well.

The Black and Gold in 2024 produced a 31-25 overall record in their first Big 12 go-around, earning conference series wins over Kansas, Texas Tech, BYU, Houston and Iowa State before the squad authored the largest NCAA Tournament comeback victory in program history against the Auburn Tigers May 17.

The effort against Auburn, UCF’s highest-ranked victory of the season by the NCAA’s RPI metric (No. 24), saw the Knights erase an early four-run deficit to ensure a tournament win in each of their last seven appearances.

Seniors Shannon Doherty, Sarah Willis and Chloe Evans, and freshmen Samantha Rey and Sierra Humphreys earned the first five All-Big 12 selections in program history, with Willis tabbed to the First Team, Doherty and Evans on the Second Team, and Rey and Humphreys unanimous additions to the All-Freshman Team. Willis and fifth year senior Jada Cody also earned NFCA Midwest All-Region honors for their efforts throughout the spring.

With the departure of Willis, Doherty, Cody, Evans and the remaining seven 2024 seniors to graduation, a younger, new-look UCF softball team will navigate the program’s second season in the Big 12. Four seniors, four juniors, six sophomores and seven freshmen make up the 21-member squad that has its sights set on its fifth straight NCAA Tournament berth and beyond.

Right-hander Kaitlyn Felton, the lone currently-rostered senior to spend all four years of her career with UCF, represents the team’s most experienced arm in the circle and can solidify her place among the more accomplished Knights pitchers in program history this spring, as she enters the season ranking among career leaders in saves (3, T-7th), strikeouts per seven innings pitched (min. 200 IP) (5.39, 9th), and appearances (65, T-10th).

Kaitlyn had it all working in her second career seven-inning one-hitter 🔥@katieeemarieeee pic.twitter.com/Fdgruto1VI

— UCF Softball (@UCF_Softball) April 18, 2024

Junior infielder Aubrey Evans has already begun her climb up the UCF leaderboards through just two seasons as well, as she enters the season seventh on the all-time career on-base percentage list (min. 250 at-bats) with a career .400 mark.

The Apopka native paced all returning Knights hitters in doubles (9), total bases (53) and walks (18) last season, and defensively posted a career-best .995 fielding percentage in 183 total chances in the infield while playing the final 50 games of her season without committing an error.

When it squares off against 12th-ranked Georgia (NFCA/GoRout Coaches Poll), UCF will have met the Bulldogs on Opening Knight in Orlando for the third time in the last four seasons. The Knights earned a dramatic 7-6 eight-inning walk-off win over the then-No. 12 Bulldogs to kick off the 2022 campaign before then-No. 10 Georgia struck back with a 4-2 win over UCF in 2023.

The Bulldogs, entering their fourth season under head coach Tony Baldwin, are in search of their fourth straight 40-plus win season this spring. Georgia authored a dominant 43-19 mark in 2024, earning the right to host an NCAA Regional before it advanced as far as the NCAA Los Angeles Super Regional.

In advancing to their second consecutive Super Regional in 2024, the Bulldogs ranked within the upper echelon in the SEC in a handful of statistical categories as well, including home runs per game (1.48, 2nd), slugging percentage (.527, 2nd), doubles (86, 3rd), fielding percentage (.976, 3rd) batting average (.295, 4th) and runs scored per game (5.76, 4th).

The Knights will face James Madison for the seventh time in program history, and the first time since UCF earned an 11-0 run-rule victory over the Dukes in Orlando Feb. 26, 2022. Felton pitched a five-inning complete game shutout with five strikeouts and just two hits allowed in making her fourth collegiate appearance.

The Dukes authored a 31-22 campaign in 2024, advancing as far as the Sun Belt Conference Championship Quarterfinal round after toppling ninth-seeded Southern Miss, 6-2, in the tournament first round May 8.

NC State represents an unfamiliar foe for the Black and Gold, as the two programs have met just once before, a 10-6 Wolfpack victory in Orlando Feb. 8, 2008. The squad produced a 30-23 mark in 2024, including statement wins over then-No. 8 Clemson (6-1, March 2), then-No. 22 South Carolina (4-0, March 17) and then-No. 13 Virginia Tech (5-4, April 5).

UCF will look to build upon an all-time 2-0 record against the Illinois Fighting Illini in the teams’ two meetings Feb. 8-9, with the programs squaring off for the first time since Feb. 10, 2018. Illinois last season went 21-31 and fell to fifth-seeded Minnesota, 10-7 in nine innings, in its Big Ten Tournament opener.

The Knights have never met CSU Bakersfield, with the Roadrunners coming off a 5-46 showing in 2024.

UP NEXT

UCF softball kicks off its spring 2025 campaign with a Feb. 6 season-opening twin bill against CSU Bakersfield at 3:30 p.m. and No. 14 Georgia at 6 p.m. The Knights will then meet NC State Feb. 7 at 4:30 p.m., Illinois Feb. 8 at 5 p.m., and conclude the weekend with a Sunday doubleheader against James Madison at 11 a.m. and Illinois at 1 p.m.

The complete tournament schedule, live stats, ESPN+ livestream links and results can be found here.

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