UCF took a bitter pill in the afternoon meeting with the Florida Gators, the top ranked team in the NCAA Softball Tournament.
Shelby Turnier gave up an early home run and then seemed to lose her control, the Gators offense putting too much pressure to be perfect on a pitcher who has largely been perfect throughout her career.
The Knights managed just one hit against Delanie Gourley as Turnier walked eight batters and the Gators jumped on the Knights for a 5-0 win.
That sent UCF to the elimination game to end the day Saturday with a spot in the regional final on the line against a FAU team that has battled UCF to a draw in previous games all in pitcher’s duels.
At some point, the bats would have to come alive for the Knights. And this Saturday evening, with everything on the line, the bats came alive at the exact right moment.
Senior Jessica Ujvari hit a home run in the eighth inning to deliver a 2-1 victory for the Knights over the Owls and set up a rematch with the Gators on Sunday. UCF will have to beat the top-ranked Florida Gators twice on the road to advance to the Super Regional round for the first time in program history.
“It was incredible, such a good feeling,” Ujvari told UCFKnights.com. “I can’t downgrade the other hitters either – we had great at bats, Linnea (Goodman) with a great at-bat, Cassady (Brewer) with what, a 17-pitch battle. It just created momentum. We each had a goal of the day and mine was to be the spark or the momentum. I was really happy I could do that for my team. Our entire offense was battling and Kylee Hanson is a great pitcher. For us to come up with that win, it was huge leading into Florida tomorrow.”
It was a grand day for the Ujvaris as a whole. Jessica’s sister, Jamie Ujvari, pitched a complete game, giving up no earned runs. The Knights gave up a run on a rare throwing error in the second inning.
UCF answered though in the fourth inning with Kalyn Cenal bringing in a run after Samantha McCloskey reached base on a double.
From there, the game took on the typical pitcher’s duel that UCF-FAU has become this season. Neither defense nor pitching staff was giving much of an inch. UCF had only five hits for the game.
It is even more difficult to find offense in the NCAA Tournament that is for sure.
Like the Knights did in Friday’s win over FAU in the first round of play, they found the key hit that they needed. And power at that.
UCF will have its work cut out for it once again. Shelby Turnier and possibly Jamie Ujvari will both have to be near perfect to keep Florida off the board and give UCF a shot. And then the Knights will have to do it again.
The first game is at noon and will air on the ESPN family of networks or on ESPN3.
