ORLANDO – The No. 21 UCF softball team staged a late comeback bid, but the squad fell to the Arizona State Sun Devils, 7-4, in the teams’ Sunday series finale.
Despite the loss, the Knights remain nine games north of .500 overall, at 20-11-1 through 32 games, and enter their third Big 12 Conference series Thursday at 3-3 in league play.
Freshman right-hander Yessenia Lopez was tabbed for the Sunday start by head coach Cindy Ball-Malone, and began her afternoon with a pair of scoreless frames with just a single hit allowed entering the top of the third.
A pair of UCF errors in the third stanza allowed the Sun Devils to crack the scoreboard first, and Arizona State would later add six more scores between the fourth and fifth innings.
The Knights drew up a response in the home half of the fifth against senior Kenzie Brown, who in the series-opener Friday threw a seven-inning complete game shutout. After Samantha Rey and Ashleigh Griffin both reached with one out on a single and hit-by-pitch, respectively, a double-steal forced an ASU error that allowed Rey to cross home plate with UCF’s first run.
A wild pitch later scored Griffin, and junior shortstop Aubrey Evans drove in two more with a single through the left side to cut the Black and Gold’s deficit to three.
Evans hit safely in both of UCF’s final two games in the series, and Sunday recorded her third multi-RBI game of the spring.
Ball-Malone called upon senior right-hander Kaitlyn Felton to hold the deficit at three, and Felton responded with two innings of one-hit ball to finish her weekend with a 2.33 ERA in a team-leading nine innings of work.
UCF was unable to muster more against Brown, though, as it was held scoreless in both the final two frames.
UP NEXT
The Knights look to bounce back in their third Big 12 series of the season against the Iowa State Cyclones March 20-22. First pitch is set for 6 p.m. from the UCF Softball Complex Thursday evening and will be streamed on ESPN+.
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