ORLANDO — With her team leading UCF 2-0 with two outs in the top of the fourth inning, James Madison catcher Lily Romero hit a fly ball down the right field line during the Black & Gold Classic at the UCF Softball Complex Sunday morning.
Three Knights converged on the sinking pop fly in foul territory halfway down the line, where sophomore Samantha Rey, making the start at second base, left her feet and pulled off an eye-popping diving grab.
“Our pitchers were throwing great, so as a defender, I was thinking, ‘I need to make a play, I need to get out of this inning,” said Rey. “We needed to get something going, and I wanted to have my pitcher’s back. We work on defense all the time, I love it. Defense wins championships.”
Rey’s standout effort, tabbed the No. 6 play on ESPN SportsCenter's Sunday top 10, put something of a jolt into her squad, which up to that point had mustered just an infield single by the second baseman an inning before she made her highlight-reel catch.
The Knights’ comeback gained legs an inning later, as the team scored three runs in the final two innings to down the Dukes, 3-2, and later blanked the Illinois Fighting Illini, 4-0, to improve to 5-1 through six contests.
“Our team got better and we’re playing a little bit more loose,” said UCF head coach Cindy Ball-Malone. “We still need to get comfortable, but I like how we’re starting to feed off each other. Our youngsters are making more mid-at-bat adjustments, and our pitching staff looked really strong this weekend.”
In keeping with the weekend’s trend, the Knights’ pitching staff spearheaded the group’s efforts in clinching its two Sunday wins, as the trio of Yessenia Lopez, Katelyn Cochran and Kaitlyn Felton combined for 14 innings of two-run ball, fanning nine and yielding a batting average-against of just .167 (8-for-48).
“We started to not get so caught up in the strategy, and lean more into trying to be our best and take our best swings,” said Ball-Malone. “From the pitching standpoint, I asked them to lead the team. We have many leaders on the team, but the pitchers have to be the face of the program. I thought they did a really good job with that this weekend.”
Felton retired 15 of the final 18 hitters she faced, including the last seven Fighting Illini hitters, in hurling the shutout. The senior made three appearances in the tournament, hurling 10-2/3 innings, allowing no runs on just four hits, while striking out nine and walking just one.
Her showing represented UCF’s second seven-inning complete game in as many days after junior transfer Lena Elkins tossed seven innings of one-run ball against Illinois (2-1 win) Saturday night. She also posted her team’s second shutout win of the young campaign, joining the Black and Gold’s season-opening 10-0 run-rule victory over CSU Bakersfield Thursday evening.
Freshman Yessenia Lopez made three starts in the event, while redshirt freshman Isabella Vega and junior Macy Miles were also outstanding over the weekend.
Offensively, Rey went 7-for-15 (.467) with a double, five runs scored and three RBI, Sierra “CC” Humphries was 7-for-17 (.412) with four doubles, two runs scored and six RBI and freshman Izzy Mertes (2 RBI) and senior Stormy Kotzelnick (3 RBI) were both 5-for-15 (.333) with three runs score.
Up Next:
On the heels of a 5-1 showing in their season-opening Black & Gold Classic, the Knights will be challenged by a week-long stretch that features matchups against five programs ranked within the preseason top 25.
The team hosted No. 15 Missouri on Tuesday and will conclude its season-opening eight-game homestand against No. 20 Liberty tonight (Wednesday) at 5 p.m. The game will be streamed on ESPN+.
UCF will then head to the Eddie C. Moore Complex for the 2025 Shriners Children's Clearwater Invitational on Friday to face #5 Texas A&M at 11 a.m. (ESPN+) and Auburn at 3:30 p.m. (ESPN+).
On Saturday, the Knights will challenge #25 Clemson at 9 a.m. (ESPN+) and Ohio State at 1 p.m. (ESPN+) and on Sunday UCF battles #7 Florida State at 8 p.m. on national TV on ESPN.
Here are the results for the Black & Gold Classic:
Thursday, February 6
N.C. State 3, CSU-Bakersfield 2.
Georgia 9, N.C. State 0, 5-innings.
UCF 10, CSU-Bakersfield 0, 5-innings.
Georgia 4, UCF 0.
Friday, February 7
CSU-Bakersfield 2, James Madison University 0.
N.C. State 5, James Madison University 0.
Illinois 8, CSU-Bakersfield 2.
UCF 3, N.C. State 1.
Georgia 7, Illinois 4.
Saturday, February 8
N.C. State 3, James Madison University 1.
Georgia 10, James Madison University 0, 5-innings.
CSU-Bakersfield 4, Illinois 0.
UCF 2, Illinois 1.
Sunday, February 9
Georgia 8, CSU-Bakersfield 0, 5-innings.
UCF 3, James Madison University 2.
UCF 4, Illinois 0.
