ORLANDO – In playing two of the more complete, all-around games the team has enjoyed thus far, the UCF softball team earned two more wins to build its active win streak to six Saturday evening.
The squad topped Providence and North Florida, both in shutout fashion, by 7-0 and 6-0 final scores in day two of the weekend Charge On Classic behind seven-inning shutouts by Isabella Vega and Kaitlyn Felton.
Vega’s showing represented her first career seven-inning complete game, as well as the second time she had eclipsed seven innings pitched in an appearance, joining her stellar relief effort against then-No. 15 Missouri that saw her spin seven innings of scoreless ball in relief Feb. 11.
Along with her seven scoreless frames Saturday, Vega punched out a career-high 11 hitters, a new Knights single-game season high, in yielding just a single hit and one walk.
She stood toe-to-toe with Friars starter Tori Grifone through the initial segment of the contest, as neither allowed a hit through three innings. Vega fanned two opposing hitters in each of the first, second and third frames and punched out her seventh of the night in a spotless fourth.
Her offense was able to solve the Providence starter in the bottom of the fourth, beginning with Stormy Kotzelnick’s one-out double to right-center field. Izzy Mertes was next, singling home Kotzelnick just moments before Ashleigh Griffin plated Mertes with UCF’s second double of the inning. Freshman catcher Beth Damon then produced the Black and Gold’s third run-scoring hit of the inning, lining an RBI single to left field that drove in Griffin.
Vega’s eighth punchout came in the top of the fifth inning to help strand a leadoff Friars baserunner, and the Knights then got back to work in the home half to extend their lead. Aubrey Evans lined an RBI double to center field that scored a leadoff Taylor Kittleman single, and Sierra Humphreys plated Evans with an RBI single to right field, pushing UCF’s lead to 5-0.
Providence, meanwhile, put an end to Vega’s no-hit bid in the sixth inning, leading off the frame with a double of its own. The team would load the bases against Vega, but UCF’s right-hander remained unfazed, inducing a soft lineout to second base to escape the threat.
An RBI double off the bat of Damon and a run-scoring groundout by Kittleman pushed UCF’s sixth and seventh runs across in the sixth, just before Vega put the finishing touches on her masterpiece with two more strikeouts in a perfect seventh inning.
Felton toed the rubber in game two against the Ospreys, throwing seven innings in an appearance for the fifth time this season and the 10th time in her career overall.
A 5-4-3 double play ball saw the right-hander safely through the first inning, and her team produced an immediate run in the home half on a Mertes groundout that drove in a leadoff Evans single.
Mertes added two more RBI to her line in the third, singling home Humphreys and Evans, and added RBI four and five in the sixth on her second home run of the season, a two-run shot that cleared the left-center field wall. The freshman’s five RBI marked a career high, as well as the most by a Knight in a single game thus far.
The support was more than enough for Felton, who cruised through the remainder of the contest to clinch her third solo shutout of the season and drop her season ERA to a glistening 0.58 through her first 48.1 innings of work.
UP NEXT
The Knights look to conclude a perfect weekend in a Sunday afternoon tilt against Georgia Southern. First pitch is set for 12 p.m. from the UCF Softball Complex, and will be streamed on ESPN+.
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