You almost couldn’t dream of a better week.
For the second time this season, redshirt freshman Isabella Vega garnered both Big 12 Conference Pitcher of the Week and D1Softball National Freshman of the Week honors in the same week.
Then for good measure, the right-hander was also tabbed National Division I Wilson/NFCA Pitcher of the Week.
Vega was responsible for nine innings across the Black and Gold’s first two wins over Kansas, highlighted by a Friday effort of allowing just two baserunners in throwing her first career no-hitter, and the 26th in program history, before earning the victory on Saturday in relief.
The effort against the Jayhawks made her the Big 12 Conference’s ERA leader in league play with a 0.89 mark spanning 55.1 innings, accompanied by four complete games, two solo shutouts, one save, just nine total runs allowed, 45 strikeouts and a .138 batting average-against.
Overall, Vega concludes her first collegiate regular season with a 12-4 record, a 1.23 ERA, seven complete games, five solo shutouts and one save spanning 108.1 innings of work. Her 97 strikeouts led the team, as did her .179 batting average-against.
After Vega and her UCF teammates arrived in Oklahoma City for the Phillips 66 Big 12 Softball Championship it was announced that she was one of the NFCA’s National Division I Freshman of the Year top 10 finalists and had also been named to the All-Big 12 First Team and All-Big 12 Freshman Team.
The Bradenton native then proved that all of the honors were not a fluke.
Facing off against the 10th-seeded Utah Utes in the Big 12 Tournament’s first round, Vega took a no-hitter and 5-0 lead into the sixth inning, at one point retiring 13 consecutive hitters in leading UCF to a 7-5 win on Ashleigh Griffin’s walk-off home run.
Griffin, a redshirt junior, stepped to the plate in the bottom of the seventh inning with teammate Aubrey Evans on first base with two outs and on a 1-2 count, the first baseman clubbed the fifth pitch of her at-bat over the left field fence at Devon Park Wednesday evening, giving UCF the first Phillips 66 Big 12 Softball Championship win in program history.
Vega yielded just one unearned run on four hits spanning 6.2 innings pitched in her postseason debut, seeing her overall season ERA dip even further to 1.16 through a team-leading 115.0 innings pitched spanning 27 appearances and 16 starts.
The right-hander made another strong start in Thursday’s quarterfinals against the second-seeded and No. 10 nationally-ranked Arizona Wildcats.
Vega allowed just one hit over a trio of scoreless frames in her second start in as many days, retiring nine of Arizona’s first 10 hitters on six groundouts and a pair of strikeouts, during which time, the Knights’ offense built a 3-0 lead.
But a leadoff triple in the fourth led to a run and sparked the Wildcats’ offense, which scored three more times on three hits off Vega in the bottom of the fifth and Arizona held on for a 4-3 victory.
Up Next:
With UCF’s time in Oklahoma City complete, the Knights were expected to receive an at-large big to their fifth consecutive NCAA Tournament during Sunday evening’s selection show. Predictions were that the Black and Gold would be sent to Gainesville for the Florida Regional beginning on Friday.
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