ORLANDO – Senior right-hander Kaitlyn Felton turned in her sixth outing of seven innings this spring, but the No. 21 UCF softball team fell to the Arizona State Sun Devils, 3-0, in the Knights’ Friday Big 12 home-opener.
Felton’s latest start, her sixth of the season, saw her extend her single-season career-high in appearances consisting of seven innings pitched to six, having yielded three or fewer runs in each.
The Knights’ (19-10-1, 2-2 Big 12) veteran began her evening with four scoreless frames before the Sun Devils (20-7, 3-1 Big 12) cracked the scoreboard, beginning with a pair of strikeouts in the top of the first to leave the bases loaded.
She induced a trio of ground-ball outs to work around a one-out single in the top of the second before spinning a perfect third frame with two more groundouts and a pop out in foul territory to left fielder Samantha Rey.
She again danced out of danger in the fourth, stranding a pair of runners in scoring position, before Arizona State scored the lone three runs of the evening on a three-run home run to left center field by right fielder Ashleigh Mejia.
Felton bounced back with two more scoreless innings, stranding a leadoff single in the sixth before authoring a scoreless top of the seventh inning.
The Knights, though, were unable to solve Sun Devils starter Kenzie Brown, a senior who entered the evening ranking among Big 12 leaders in strikeouts per seven innings (11.9, 1st), fewest hits allowed per seven innings (3.58, 1st), strikeouts (96, 2nd) and ERA (1.11, 4th).
Right fielder Stormy Kotzelnick notched her eighth multi-hit game of the season, and catcher Beth Damon recorded UCF’s third hit of the night in the bottom of the seventh.
UP NEXT
The 21st-ranked Knights look to even the series in a Saturday matinee matchup, with first pitch slated for 2 p.m. from the UCF Softball Complex. The game will be streamed on ESPN+.
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