The UCF Knights softball program is making its seventh NCAA Softball Tournament appearance in program history. Six of those seven appearances have taken place in the same location that it will be taking place this weekend. Against eventually the same power the Knights have always had to overcome.
Gainesville, Fla.
The Knights will open at noon on Friday against Florida Atlantic in a game that will be nationally televised on ESPNU. The two-time defending National Champions and No. 1-overall national seed Florida Gators take on Alabama State following UCF-FAU on SEC Network. It is a double-elimination regional tournament format.
There is a lot of history with UCF and FAU going back to the Atlantic Sun years when the Knights and Owls competed for A-Sun Championships from 2002-05. Eleven years after UCF and FAU were in the A-Sun, they now meet in Gainesville for the tournament with FAU representing Conference USA, while the Knights represent the American Athletic Conference.
Aside from the history, the two program’s present is pretty strong too.
It is a matchup of two of the best pitchers in the country with UCF’s Shelby Turnier and FAU’s Kylee Hanson. Both Turnier and Hanson have history against each other having not only faced each other in the last three seasons in the regular seasonm but also meeting back in high school years when Turnier pitched for Palm Beach Gardens while Hanson pitched for Jupiter.
There are lots of memories between the pitchers and programs, with UCF hoping to add more memories this weekend.
Although the Knights have not won a regional in Gainesville, it does not mean they have not had great moments in Gainesville.
Top 7 UCF Softball Games in NCAA Tournament History
7. May 21, 2010 FIU 1 vs UCF 7
UCF jumped on Beth Torina’s FIU Panthers team in the first inning highlighted by a grand slam by Miami-native Hillary Barrow as the Knights would cruise to a 7-1 win over the Panthers in the opening game of the 2010 Gainesville Regional. Ashley Cole was dominant in the circle in the victory for the Knights. Torina was at the time the Head Coach at FIU would go on to get the LSU head coaching job a couple of seasons later.
6. May 17, 2008 Georgia Tech 1 vs UCF 7
UCF advanced to program’s first ever win in the Regional Championship round by routing Georgia Tech 7-1. Tiffany Lane led the way with four hits in the game including two triples, and Breanne Javier broke Stephanie Best’s school record for most base hits in a single season during this game. The win set a program record of 48 wins breaking the 2005 record for most wins in a single season at the time.
5. May 16, 2015 South Carolina 2 vs UCF 5
UCF broke school record set in 2008 for most wins in a single season by picking up its 50th win of the season in a victory over South Carolina.
The Knights advanced to the Regional Final in Tallahassee thanks to Mackenzie Audas who, in her final start of her Knights career, picked up her 24th win of the season striking out five and went past 250 strikeouts in a single season.
She and Shelby Turnier made up a UCF pitching staff that became the first pitching staff to have a pair of 20-win and 250-strikeout pitchers since North Carolina’s Lisa Norris and Danielle Spaulding in 2009.
4. May 17, 2014 Stetson 4 vs UCF 6
The Knights advanced to the Gainesville Regional Final holding on with a dramatic win over Stetson.
Farrah Sullivan hit a three-run home run in the second inning off Hatters Ace Meredith Owen to give the Knights a 5-0 lead. Kalyn Cenal also had two RBIs in the game as UCF would hold off Stetson run late for the victory.
It was the second win of the day for UCF in elimination games after beating FAMU 2-1 earlier in the day. It was the first pair of NCAA Tournament wins for UCF since 2010.
3. May 16, 2008 USF 2 vs UCF 3
It was the first meeting between USF-UCF since the 2006 regular season, when the rivals stopped the team’s annual series. In the meeting in 2006, the Knights highlight of the season was a win at USF led by then-sophomore transfer pitcher name Allison Kime.
Two years later, the Bulls and Knights were in regionals together. The Knights were coming off a C-USA Tournament Championship win in Houston the week before, while the Bulls had won the Big East championship.
The Knights found themselves down 2-1 in the top of the sixth with two on and two outs and Kime at the plate. Kime was down to two strikes in the count and kept fouling pitches. Kime delivered the biggest hit of her legendary career with a two-RBI triple driving in Breanne Javier and Hillary Barrow.
Kime finished with six strikeouts as a pitcher and the victory over the Bulls. But on this day, Kime’s bat overshadowed her pitching.
2. May 21, 2005 UCF 5 vs No. 23 Florida 3
In the Knights’ first ever regional, they picked up their first ever NCAA Tournament win in an elimination game knocking off the host Florida Gators 5-3.
In a vintage memorable performance, Stephanie Best was 3-for-4 at the plate with a pair of RBIs including a memorable RBI triple in the top of the first inning that would set the tone for the Knights as Best led UCF to its first ever win against Florida.
Best would end up becoming the first ever UCF softball player inducted into the UCF Hall of Fame 10 years later in 2015. The Gators would end up making a coaching change following the regional as the Gators would hire Tim Walton.
1. May 18, 2008 No. 1 Florida 0 vs UCF 1 (8)
Allison Kime put together an amazing all-around performance on this Regional Final Sunday afternoon. Kime threw a five-hit shutout in eight innings in the circle and hit the walk-off grounder scoring Tiffany Lane in the bottom of the eighth inning to stun No. 1 Florida 1-0.
It is to date the biggest win in program history as the Knights ended the top-ranked Gators’ 41 straight wins that season in Gainesville and 37 overall straight wins on the season.
