The UCF softball team (35-24) saw its historic season come to an in a 2025 NCAA Austin Regional Final matchup against the host and sixth-seeded Texas Longhorns (49-10), 9-0, at Red & Charline McCombs Field Sunday (May 18) afternoon.
“This is the toughest part of the year when you have to say goodbye to some awesome seniors,” said head coach Cindy Ball-Malone. “The beauty of this season is we were very young, so we get to return a lot of our awesome athletes. One game, one pitch doesn’t define us, and there’s a lot to learn from for all of our younger players.”
The Knights suffered a tough 4-3 loss in their opening game against No. 25 Michigan, the Big 10 Conference Tournament champion, seeing a 3-1 lead disappear in a 3-run Wolverine sixth inning, but bounced back with a pair of wins on Saturday, 10-2 in 5-innings over Eastern Illinois (34-22) and 10-8 in a rematch with Michigan (39-21).
The third-ranked Longhorns clinched their NCAA Super Regional berth with a pair of two-run home runs in the second and fifth frames before breaking the game open in the seventh with another two-run homer and three unearned insurance runs.
Though the Knights were unable to find the scoreboard against Texas’ ace sophomore right-hander Teagan Kavan, the squad did get hits from Aubrey Evans, Sierra Humphreys, Ashleigh Griffin, Beth Damon, Coco Jaimes and Madison Simon.
Jaimes was the offensive star in the regional for UCF, as she would hit safely in each game, highlighted by a pair of three-hit games against Michigan and her first collegiate home run against Eastern Illinois.
The freshman infielder hit a team-best .667 (8-for-12) for the weekend, and in her last 14 games went 16-for-34 (.471) with seven runs scored, two doubles, one home run, eight RBI and 21 total bases in that span.
Vega Honored
Redshirt freshman right-hander Isabella Vega was among 18 players earning Softball America’s Freshman Team All-America status.
She becomes the third player in program history to earn All-America recognition, and the second to earn the honors from Softball America.
The Bradenton posted a team-best 1.70 ERA and a 14-7 record that included one no-hitter, seven SBCcomplete games, five shutouts and one save, with 110 strikeouts and a .197 batting average-against in 135.2 innings spanning 32 appearances, including 20 starts.
Vega also earned one Wilson/NFCA National Pitcher of the Week award, two D1Softball National Freshman of the Week awards, two Big 12 Conference Pitcher of the Week honors, and selections to the Big 12’s All-Conference First Team and All-Freshman Team, as well as the NFCA’s All-Gulf Region First Team. She was also a top 10 finalist for the NFCA's National Freshman of the Year award.
