ORLANDO – With the team’s four-game road trip complete, the No. 21 UCF softball team is set to begin its home Big 12 Conference slate with a three-game set against the Arizona State Sun Devils.
The Knights on their most recent swing away from home went 2-2 in four straight games against top-four nationally ranked opponents in the No. 4 Arizona Wildcats and the No. 3 Florida Gators. UCF earned the highest-ranked series win in program history with a pair of wins over the Wildcats in Tucson before falling in their last two games against Arizona Sunday afternoon and Florida Wednesday evening.
Despite the team’s shutout loss to the Gators in Gainesville, the squad still produced a .278 team average throughout the four contests, hitting six home runs and five doubles in totaling 15 runs scored.
Fifth year senior Madison Simon paced the squad on the trip with a .462 average (6-for-13), scoring once while doubling twice and driving in two with eight total bases. Redshirt junior Ashleigh Griffin and sophomore Sierra Humphreys represented the other two Knights to earn multiple extra-base hits over the last four games, with Griffin producing a .385 mark (5-for-13) with two home runs, three RBI and 11 total bases, and Humphreys hitting .333 (4-for-12) with one double and one home run.
Freshman right-hander Yessenia Lopez paced the squad in workload in the circle over UCF’s most recent trip, throwing a team-leading 10.2 innings in her three outings against the Wildcats and Gators.
She impressed in her Wednesday appearance in Gainesville, limiting a Florida offense that entered the evening leading the nation in total hits, home runs, RBI, slugging percentage and total runs scored to just three runs on four hits in six innings, marking her third effort of the season of at least six innings pitched.
Redshirt freshman Isabella Vega and senior Kaitlyn Felton also produced strong displays over the weekend in Tucson, combining for 10.1 innings with just two earned runs allowed on seven total hits. Felton garnered her second Big 12 Pitcher of the Week award this spring with her performance, securing her ninth win and third save in her two appearances.
When it meets the Sun Devils this weekend, UCF will look to improve upon a 1-2 all-time record against Arizona State. The two programs last met during the 2023 OSU Mizuno Classic hosted by the then-No. 2 Oklahoma State Cowgirls in Stillwater, Oklahoma, March 17-18, when the Knights went 1-1 in their two games against the Maroon and Gold.
Then-junior right-hander Grace Jewell produced one of the strongest starts of her collegiate career against then-No. 22 ASU March 17, throwing her first career no-hitter in a six-inning 8-0 run-rule victory. The effort marked the first no-hitter against a power four opponent in program history, as well as the first no-hitter against a ranked opponent in program history.
The Sun Devils most recently swept their Wednesday doubleheader against Stetson in DeLand, Florida, outscoring the Hatters by an aggregate 19-7 between the two games.
Their two Wednesday wins bolstered their season record to 19-7 overall through 26 games on the heels of a two games to one series win over the BYU Cougars to open Big 12 Conference play.
Senior right-hander Kenzie Brown produced a dominant start in ASU’s series-opener with the Cougars, striking out 18 BYU hitters in her seven-inning, two-hit complete game shutout to lead her squad to a 1-0 Thursday win.
The Sun Devils dropped their Friday matchup, 6-5, but then bounced back with a 5-4 series-clinching win in eight innings Saturday.
Arizona State enters the series as one of the top offensive squads in the Big 12 Conference, as the team ranked among league leaders in team slugging percentage (.530, 2nd), batting average (.327, 2nd), home runs (30, 2nd), total hits (206, 3rd) and on-base percentage (.403, 3rd) entering play Wednesday.
Led by Brown’s strikeout total of 96 through 56.2 innings, good for second-most in the conference, spearheads a pitching staff that leads the Big 12 in strikeouts per seven innings (7.38) and ranks second in strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.24) as well.
First pitch is set for 6 p.m. from the UCF Softball Complex Friday night, and will be streamed on ESPN+.
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