WACO, TX — As she rounded the bases under a clear sky at Getterman Stadium Sunday, sophomore utility player Samantha Rey’s smile said it all.
“Just joy,” she said of her feeling in the moment. “Seeing my teammates waiting for me at home plate was super fun. I was just thinking, ‘Wow, that’s really cool.’”
Rey’s first career home run, a two-run shot in the top of the fourth inning, accompanied a host of other firsts in helping lead the UCF softball team to its 7-2 win in the series finale over the Baylor Bears Sunday afternoon.
Behind a three-homer, 15-hit attack, the Knights improved to 22-16-1 on the season, earning their fourth Big 12 Conference win of the year, and the program’s first win over the Bears in Waco, Texas.
In addition to Rey’s long ball, the Knights also saw redshirt freshman Isabella Vega lock down the first save of her NCAA career and redshirt sophomore Macy Miles clinch the first win of her collegiate career in relief of starter Yessenia Lopez.
With four innings of scoreless, one-hit ball Sunday, Vega punctuated one of the strongest weeks of her young career in the circle. She totaled a team-high 17 innings with two complete games and one four-inning save, highlighted by her seven-inning shutout against the No. 3 Florida Gators last Wednesday, yielding just one run on 10 hits with 18 strikeouts, limiting her opposition to a .167 batting average-against.
UCF received the fast offensive start it was looking for Sunday courtesy of third baseman Sierra Humphreys, who sent the fourth pitch of game over the right-center field wall for her third home run of the season and sixth of her career to give her squad an immediate 1-0 lead.
The Black and Gold quickly added on, scoring their second run of the first frame on a Beth Damon RBI single that cashed in on Rey’s base hit that followed Humphreys’ long ball.
Baylor then drew up a quick counterpunch, plating a pair of their own in the home half to tie the game at two runs apiece.
Miles, the daughter of former LSU head football coach Les Miles, was called upon in relief midway through the bottom of the first and stranded a two-out walk in spinning a bounce-back scoreless second inning to set the stage for her offense to retake the game’s momentum in the third.
Junior Aubrey Evans wasted no time, hitting her team’s second homer of the game on the first pitch of her at-bat to lead off the third inning, giving the Knights a 3-2 advantage.
UCF once again held Baylor scoreless in the home half of the third, when junior transfer right-hander Lena Elkins was called upon to relieve Miles and stranded a leadoff single with a strikeout and a 4-6-3 double play.
The Black and Gold later pushed their lead to 5-2 on Rey’s fourth-inning home run, part of a three-hit game for the Salinas, California, native. Rey was joined by Humphreys and Damon in collecting three hits in the winning effort.
UCF’s final two scores came in the top of the sixth frame, on a Damon RBI single and a perfectly-executed squeeze bunt by Ashleigh Griffin that plated Evans.
The team had wasted another dominant outing by Vega in a 1-0 series-opening loss to the Bears on Friday.
Baylor plated what would prove to be the game’s lone run in the bottom of the first inning, cashing in on back-to-back one-out walks and a two-out RBI single up the middle.
Vega, who scattered four hits, recorded her fourth effort this season with at least seven strikeouts.
Offensively, the Knights’ four hits came courtesy of pinch-hitter Kendall Yarnell, who extended her Big 12 Conference lead in pinch hits to six this season with her 13th collegiate hit overall, Rey, Damon and Evans.
UCF then dropped its game two matchup with Baylor Bears, 3-2, Saturday afternoon, battling back from deficits of 1-0 in the fourth inning, on singles by Evans and Izzy Mertes and a throwing error off a fielder’s choice grounder by Damon, and 2-1 in the sixth, cashing in on an Evans leadoff double with Damon’s two-out RBI single.
In the circle, senior right-hander Kaitlyn Felton hurled her seventh complete game of the spring, yielding just three runs with four strikeouts in her six innings of work.
She did not issue a walk in her latest outing, notching her fourth appearance of the season with at least six innings pitched and no walks allowed.
Up Next:
UCF faces another challenge in Norman, Oklahoma, this weekend, squaring off against No. 2 Oklahoma Sooners in two games in a three-game round robin that also features a game against St. Thomas (Minnesota).
First pitch against the Sooners is set for 8 p.m. from Love’s Field on Friday, followed by a Saturday doubleheader against St. Thomas (11 a.m.) and the Sooners (1:30 p.m.). The games will be streamed by ESPN+.
