ORLANDO – As the beginning of the UCF softball team’s 2025 season approaches with the program’s annual season-opening Black & Gold Classic, head coach Cindy Ball-Malone will bring into the new year an exciting team infused with young talent and potential to complement the experience and established skills of its returners.
In part four of UCF softball’s class preview, the seniors on the squad’s 2025 roster will be highlighted.
Kaitlyn Felton | RHP | Valrico, Fla.
The lone rostered senior on the Knights roster to spend all four years of her career with UCF, Felton looks to punctuate a strong collegiate career in the circle that has seen her role grow with each passing season.
Over the course of her first three collegiate seasons, Felton has produced a 3.72 ERA over 214.1 innings of work, accompanied by 165 strikeouts, three saves, four shutouts and 10 complete games. She enters the 2025 campaign on a trio of UCF all-time career lists, including strikeouts per seven innings pitched (5.39, 9th), saves (3, 7th) and total appearances (65, 10th).
She made a season-high 19 starts in 2024 and also recorded single-season career-bests in innings pitched (87.0) and complete games (4). She yielded just three doubles in Big 12 Conference play, the second-fewest in the league, and her 11 winning decisions paced her squad overall.
The right-hander on three occasions spun at least seven innings in an appearance, highlighted by her career-high eight-inning effort against Kansas March 9 that helped clinch the first Big 12 Conference series win in program history. Felton also went the distance against FAU April 17, stymieing the Owls to the tune of a one-hit shutout, and Kennesaw State March 3.
She played an instrumental role in the Knights earning the first Big 12 sweep in program history as well, earning winning decisions in back-to-back appearances against BYU April 5-6, allowing three runs in 6.2 innings while striking out four and limiting her opposition to a .231 batting average-against.
Stormy Kotzelnick | INF/OF | Carmel, Ind.
Kotzelnick returns for her second season with the Black and Gold in 2025 after she joined the Knights as a transfer from Louisiana prior to the 2024 campaign.
The infielder/outfielder made a name for herself as one of the squad’s more reliable hitters in the team’s space games, hitting an aggregate .471/.526/.824 (8-for-17) with four runs scored, three doubles, one home run, six RBI and 14 total bases when UCF dons its Canaveral blue uniforms.
She hit her first home run as a Knight in UCF’s first space game of the season against UConn, and later swatted her second Knights homer on the road against then-No. 4 Oklahoma State March 15-17.
Kotzelnick enjoyed her best offensive stretch of the season from March 9–April 14, hitting a combined .328/.359/.459 (20-for-61) with five multi-hit games, six runs scored, five doubles, one home run, eight RBI and 28 total bases in 20 games (19 starts) in that span.
She also came through with a key game-tying two-run single in the bottom of the sixth inning against Kansas March 9, helping push her team to a 3-2 win in eight innings and clinch the first Big 12 Conference series win in program history.
Madison Simon | OF | Irvine, Calif.
Simon joins UCF for her final season of eligibility in 2025 after spending the last four years with the Oregon State Beavers.
The outfielder was a key member of the Beavers’ 2022 squad that made a run to the Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City, hitting safely in four of her five games during the 2022 NCAA Knoxville Regional. She went 4-for-15 with three RBI, two runs scored, two doubles and one home run in the regional, helping eliminate the host Tennessee Lady Vols and propel Oregon State to a date with the Stanford Cardinal in the NCAA Super Regional round.
Her May 27 two-run home run powered the Beavers to a 3-1 win over Stanford, and Oregon State would eliminate the Cardinal in two games to earn its World Series berth.
Deana Cunningham | INF | Pierson, Fla.
Cunningham joins the Knights for her first collegiate season as an infielder, boasting a .456/.526/.805 line (68-for-149) with 65 runs scored, 51 RBI and 30 extra-base hits throughout her high school career at T. Dewitt Taylor Middle-High School.
She also appeared in a season high 21 games as a freshman on the varsity team, slashing .493/.561/.830 (35-for-71) with 14 extra-base hits and 32 runs scored.
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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