Softball Outlasts Clemson in Eight Innings, 6-4

CLEARWATER, Fla. – Just 11 games into their collegiate tenure, the UCF softball team’s freshman class has proven on multiple occasions its capability to rise to the occasion in key moments.

“It’s awesome to see,” freshman infielder Coco Jaimes said of her class’s contributions thus far. “The success is cool, but also to see the adversity we’re going to continue to go through, and how we bounce back from that is going to be even cooler. We’ve been under great leadership, and they’re going to continue to guide us throughout the season.”

The latest such occasion came Saturday afternoon in day two of the Knights’ participation in the Shriners Children’s Clearwater Invitational. On the heels of back-to-back Friday losses to No. 5 Texas A&M and Auburn, the team’s freshmen spearheaded the charge to a crucial 6-4, eight inning win over the Clemson Tigers Saturday.

Jaimes’ eighth-inning RBI double marked the fourth of five RBI produced by freshmen hitters against Clemson, joining one by Izzy Mertes on the first home run of her career, and Beth Damon’s season high three in her first career three-hit game.

The group’s contributions were supported in the circle by senior right-hander Kaitlyn Felton, who threw seven innings while yielding just two earned runs in the Knights’ seventh win of the season.

The winning effort also snapped the Knights’ brief three-game skid and propelled the squad to its second extra-inning win, joining UCF’s five-run comeback victory over No. 15 Missouri Tuesday evening.

UCF received the fast start it had been looking for over its last three games, when Mertes launched a 2-2 offering over the fence in dead center field in the top of the first inning, giving her squad an immediate one-run advantage.

That first career home run feeling 🤩

Congrats, @MertesIzzy!! pic.twitter.com/zLQWx6zg20

— UCF Softball (@UCF_Softball) February 15, 2025

The Knights added on in the top of the second, when Sierra Humphreys led off with a single and Damon followed with a long RBI double off the left field fence. Aubrey Evans drove in UCF’s third run of the contest on an infield single, scoring Damon on a ball that started foul but dribbled back into fair territory before it was touched.

Felton made the three runs stand through the first four innings, stranding a one-out, first-inning Tigers double with her first strikeout of the afternoon, leaving a one-out single on base in the second, and inducing a trio of groundouts in a spotless third.

After Clemson failed to capitalize on two more runners in the fourth inning, the squad rallied for three scores in the home half of the fifth on a walk, two singles, a double and a sacrifice fly to knot the affairs up at three runs apiece against Felton and freshman right-hander Yessenia Lopez.

Felton re-entered the game in the sixth, and quieted the storm while also benefitting from a pair of key defensive plays on the basepaths in the sixth and seventh innings.

Clemson saw a runner thrown out at third base in the sixth on a single to left fielder Samantha Rey, who started a left-to-third-to-shortstop relay for the final out of the frame. The Tigers then ran into a double play in the seventh, seeing one runner thrown out at home by Jaimes on a single to second base, and an alert throw by Damon erased a second Tigers runner attempting to move up to third base.

“It was electric,” Jaimes said. “We wanted to come up for her so much; she pitched a heck of a game. She came in and shut them down and brought so much energy to the team. She was locked in the whole game. You could see it when we’re connecting with her on the field.”

The Knights finally broke through offensively in the top of the eighth inning, courtesy of a two-run single by Damon and a booming RBI double off the right field fence by Jaimes, the first of her career, to restore the Black and Gold’s three-run advantage. Felton clinched the contest in the bottom half, retiring three of the final five hitters she faced.

The right-hander now boasts an ERA of 0.72 through the first six appearances of her senior season spanning 19.1 innings of work, limiting her opposition to .203 (14-for-69) in the process.

UP NEXT

The Knights look to conclude their stay in Clearwater on a high note Sunday, as the team will match up against Ohio State at 1 p.m. and No. 6 Florida State at 8 p.m. Both games will be streamed on the ESPN family of networks, with the nightcap against the sixth-ranked Seminoles set to air on ESPN.

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