Softball Set for Road Clash with No. 22 Florida AtlanticSoftball Set for Road Clash with No. 22 Florida Atlantic

Softball Set for Road Clash with No. 22 Florida Atlantic

by Ryan Ladika

ORLANDO – Fresh off its strong performance throughout its weekend SpaceU Classic, the UCF softball team is set to hit the road once more for a tilt with the No. 22 Florida Atlantic Owls in Boca Raton, Florida.

The matchup presents the Knights with the opportunity for their second ranked win of the season, joining their five-run comeback effort against the No. 15 Missouri Tigers at home Feb. 11, the largest ranked comeback victory in program history.

The Black and Gold most recently completed a 5-1 run through their second home tournament of the spring Feb. 20-23, earning wins over the Quinnipiac Bobcats, Pitt Panthers, FGCU Eagles and Columbia Lions while falling to the Ohio State Buckeyes, 7-3. UCF outscored its opposition by an aggregate 24 runs to 12 over its six games.

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The weekend was highlighted by right-handed pitcher Kaitlyn Felton’s first career no-hitter in the Knights’ Thursday clash with Quinnipiac, an outing that also marked the 25th in program history. Felton was dominant throughout her first appearance of the tournament, retiring 21 of the 22 batters she faced, with the lone Bobcat to reach base coming on a Knights defensive error.

She followed her Thursday showing with a second seven-inning complete game Sunday afternoon, leading her team to a 4-2 win over FGCU and its fifth win in six games. Felton allowed just two unearned runs in the contest and spun four consecutive scoreless innings to conclude the affairs.

The senior right-hander concluded her weekend with a perfect 0.00 ERA in 14.1 total innings, earning three winning decisions while throwing two seven-inning complete games and surrendering just six hits and no walks. Opposing batters managed just a .128 batting average-against (6-for-47) when facing Felton throughout her three weekend appearances.

Overall, the right-hander is enjoying a breakout beginning to her senior season, boasting a 0.79 ERA in 10 appearances spanning 35.2 innings of work while yielding just four walks and a batting average-against of .189 (23-for-122). Entering play Monday, her three complete games ranked tied for second in the Big 12 Conference, and her 0.79 ERA represented the third-lowest mark in the league, behind only Texas Tech’s NiJaree Canady (0.77) and BYU’s Kaysen Korth (0.36).

Felton’s exploits in the circle co-led the team along with junior transfer Lena Elkins and freshman Yessenia Lopez, with the trio accounting for 34.1 of UCF’s total 40 innings pitched. Lopez, UCF’s leader in innings pitched and strikeouts through three weeks, boosted her season punchout total to 43, which rank third-most in the league, with 20 across her three weekend outings.

UCF’s freshman right-hander recorded her second and third efforts of the season with at least seven strikeouts over the weekend, fanning eight in UCF’s 4-2 win over Pitt and seven in relief against Ohio State. Lopez has done it while shouldering a significant workload early in her debut campaign, as her 39.2 innings rank third-most in the Big 12 behind Canady (45.2) and Utah’s Shelbee Jones (46.1).

Elkins, meanwhile, turned in her strongest outing since her seven-inning complete game against Illinois in her Knights debut, tossing a five-inning, run-rule-shortened complete game against Columbia Feb. 22. She yielded just one hit and fanned three as UCF recorded its second run-rule victory of the spring, 8-0.

Offensively, UCF produced a collective .320/.379/.435 (47-for-147) line over its last six games, led by sophomore Sierra Humphreys (.471) and redshirt junior Ashleigh Griffin (455). Humphreys hit her first home run of the spring in her team’s win over Pitt, and Griffin doubled twice while driving in three over five games as both hit over .400 throughout the weekend tournament.

SB_TT_2543_022325_14272282Ashleigh Griffin | Photo by: Tyler Thomas

Griffin’s two doubles factored into UCF’s team total of seven, joined by two more from Izzy Mertes and one each from Madison Simon, Stormy Kotzelnick and Samantha Rey. Entering UCF’s Wednesday midweek matchup at FAU, the Knights boast a Big 12 Conference-leading doubles total of 28, a mark that also ranks 12th in the nation.

Simon also produced one of her strongest games as a Knight thus far, tallying her first multi-extra-base hit game of the year in the Knights’ loss to Ohio State. She slugged her first UCF home run to lead off the bottom of the second inning, and in the third hit a two-out RBI double to score Rey and cut UCF’s deficit to 4-3.

When the two teams clash in Boca Raton, UCF will look to build upon a slight edge it holds in the all-time series against FAU. The Knights own a 16-15 lead in 31 previous matchups, as well as an active six-game win streak against the Owls dating back to April 17, 2018.

The two teams met in Orlando last spring, a contest UCF took by a narrow 1-0 margin behind Felton’s seven-inning, one-hit, complete-game shutout. The Knights scored the game’s lone run in the bottom of the first inning thanks in part to former Knights third baseman Jada Cody’s 51st career double, a two-bagger that broke UCF’s all-time career doubles record. Former Knight Chloe Evans drove Cody in moments later with an RBI single back up the middle.

The Owls, meanwhile, are pegged No. 22 in the nation in D1Softball's week three rankings on the strength of a 15-2 start to the 2025 campaign. FAU boasted power four wins over Ole Miss, Kansas, then-No. 25 Clemson and Minnesota amid a season-opening seven-game win streak, and brings an active six-game win streak into Wednesday’s game.

The Owls own one of The American’s top pitching staffs entering the season’s fourth week, as the squad ranks among conference leaders in ERA (2.47, 1st), WHIP (1.16, 1st), strikeouts per seven innings (6.52, 1st), fewest hits allowed per seven innings (5.55, 2nd), shutouts (2, T-2nd) and strikeout-to-walk ratio (2.51, 2nd).

First pitch for UCF’s Wednesday night tilt is set for 5 p.m. from FAU Softball Stadium, and will be streamed on FAUSports.com.

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