When UCF softball unveiled its schedule at the beginning of the season, it was hard not to be awestruck by the names that dotted.
Opening against Alabama. A trip to Palm Springs for the prestigious Mary Nutter Classic. A three-game set at Baylor. A home date with Auburn. Florida coming to UCF. A trip to Tallahassee.
These were all difficult games. Games that would ensure UCF had a high RPI even with losses and be prepared for the part of the season that really matters. The part to UCF’s legacy that has been missing through this whole surge in the program.
The Knights have never escaped the NCAA Tournament Regional round despite their strong pitching and overall strong roster. They have not hosted a regional yet either The schedule was meant to give the team a chance.
UCF had to take care of things in the American Conference first though. The difficult schedule caused the Knights to falter some and so they will not host a regional next weekend.
But much of what the team had worked for this year is still in front of it.
“I feel like you close this door of our regular season and we open up our championships season,” coach Renee Luers-Gillispie said following Sunday’s regular season-closing win over East Carolina. “That’s what’s happening this next weekend. To go into the conference tournament being able to be as strong as we have the last two games, it feels good to know that we are going into the conference tournament in the right mode.”
The Knights are indeed playing strong with a mix of some surprising power to go with Shelby Turnier’s power pitching.
UCF finished second in the conference thanks to a pair of canceled games in Storrs, Conn., and so will start off the American Conference Softball Tournament on Thursday against the UConn Huskies in Tulsa at 2:30 p.m. on the American Digital Network.
Even though the Knights finished second to the USF Bulls in the conference, they are still considered the favorite. The Knights have not lost a conference series in three years now and only lost out on a third consecutive regular season title thanks to weather canceling games.
There is a lot of confidence heading into the tournament.
“We’ve taken every series,” Turnier said. “It just so happened we don’t have the hardware to show it. To leave here and to leave with another conference tournament championship would mean a lot to us. At this point, we’re focused on winning every game that we can. if that means a conference championship comes along with that, then so be it.”
That confidence is real from the dominance they showed but also from just how solid everything has gone. After a hiccup in Friday’s game against East Carolina, UCF turned in one of its best offensive weekends of the season. And Turnier continued to be strong from the pitcher’s circle, earning the American Conference Pitcher of the Week for the final week of the regular season.
The stakes of course are much higher now. But that is what UCF has been working toward all year. It has been a driving purpose for the season.
The Knights likely will not avoid a very powerful team — either No. 1 Florida or No. 7 Florida State — in the Regionals round. But a strong conference tournament showing with a conference championship could help their argument to get shipped out of state against a weaker opponent by seeding.
Ultimately winning is what it is going to take for the Knights to accomplish their goals late in the season at this stage.
Heading into this tournament, UCF feels like it is moving in the right direction and ready to make some noise with the pressure mounting.
“We’re playing together right now,” Jessica Ujvari said. “That’s the key going into this postseason and this conference tournament: playing together, fighting for each other, cheering each other on as well as making the adjustments together. I think you are going to find when we do that, which we have been, greater results are going to form. That is something we strive on each and every day.”
