ORLANDO – The UCF softball team brought a lead into the top of the sixth inning, but a late two-run home run by the visitors completed a three-run Flames comeback and sent the Knights to a 5-4 loss to No. 20 Liberty at the UCF Softball Complex Wednesday evening.
The loss snapped the five-game win streak the Knights brought into play Wednesday, coming off the high of a comeback victory of their own against the No. 15 Missouri Tigers, 6-5 in eight innings, Tuesday evening.
“There were some good things from us, but at the same time, we were in the driver’s seat. We wasted quite a few outs with the bases loaded and we looked young,” said head coach Cindy Ball-Malone. “We can get better at that. It looked like we were playing not to lose instead of going and getting it.”
Indeed, the Knights’ undoing in just their second defeat of the spring through eight games was the challenges they faced in cashing in with runners on base. The Black and Gold left 10 runners on, and in two different innings with the bases loaded went a combined 0-for-5.
Liberty managed an early score in the top half of the second inning, but the Knights struck for four of their own to take a three-run advantage in the bottom of the fourth.
Freshman infielder Izzy Mertes, off to a strong offensive start to her collegiate career, followed a Stormy Kotzelnick walk with her sixth double in seven games. Redshirt freshman infielder Taylor Kittleman then plated Kotzelnick with an infield single to second base, representing her first collegiate hit.
On the other side of a pitching change, freshman infielder Kendall Yarnell ripped her first career hit through the left side to load the bases. Sophomore catcher Kiley Strott then sent a 1-2 offering out to center field, scoring Mertes from third on a sacrifice fly to give the Black and Gold a 2-1 lead.
The squad wasn’t through in the inning, as a passed ball allowed Kittleman to score UCF’s third run, and moments later, a fielder’s choice ground ball to the Liberty shortstop off the bat of Tuesday’s hero, Madison Simon, produced the fourth Knights run when Yarnell utilized a slick swim move around the catcher’s attempted tag at home plate.
UCF could manage little else on the offensive side the remainder of the evening, while the Flames continued to chip away at the Black and Gold’s new lead. The visitors got one back in the top of the fifth on a single to center field, and took the lead right back in the sixth on an RBI double and a long two-run home run that cleared the center field wall.
“After the first bases loaded, I sensed that we were tight and playing not to lose,” Ball-Malone continued. “It’s good to rely on our pitching staff, but at the same time, we could have put that game away in five or six innings with one big swing.”
UP NEXT
The Knights will now tackle their first road trip of the season, taking I-4 west to partake once more in the Shriners Children’s Clearwater Invitational. UCF will meet three more ranked squads in their five total games in the tournament, beginning with No. 5 Texas A&M Friday morning. First pitch is set for 11 a.m. from the Eddie C. Moore Complex, and will be streamed on ESPN+.
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