UCF softball suffers its first loss at home

A swing and a miss for the UCF softball team, as they lost their first game of the season against the 16th-ranked Duke University, 5-2, Friday night at the UCF Softball Complex.

The 53-degree weather did not stop a crowd of over 1,000 from coming out and cheering on both the Knights (2-1, 0-0 Big 12) and the Blue Devils (1-1, 0-0 Big 12).

UCF started on the right foot by scoring two runs in the first inning, but could not build off that momentum for the rest of the matchup. UCF softball head coach Cindy Ball-Malone said the Knights have to be ready for a rally sooner rather than later with a better response.

“It’s early in the year and we have a young team, but I’d like to see us stick to our plan and make them change their plan mid-game,” Ball-Malone said. “It’s a very good Duke team; they have solid pitching, defense, and they’re a dynamic team offensively.”

The Knights rotated four pitchers throughout the game, including redshirt sophomore pitcher Isabella Vega, who made her first appearance of the season but allowed four earned-runs in two innings.

The Blue Devils capitalized during this time as Duke redshirt junior catcher Kairi Rodriguez homered to deep left field in the second inning, followed by a single and double RBI caused by Duke senior infielder Aminah Vega and Duke freshman catcher Gabriella Shadek in the third.

“We definitely had a big first inning and that’ll be huge going deeper into the season. We’ll have to continue that [energy] going innings one through seven,” freshman pitcher Hildie Dempsey said.

Dempsey surrendered a home run from Duke graduate student Tyrina Jones at the top of the sixth inning, which was the last run of the matchup before UCF suffered its first loss of the season.

UCF exceeded Duke defensively with a strike percentage of 67.6, compared to Duke’s 56.6, but it was not enough against the Blue Devils’ overall hitting of .222 to the Knights’ .130. Ball-Malone reinforced that the Knights needed to better stick to their strategy, believing her team recoiled after Duke began scoring.

“It’s one game, it’s day two of the season, but I would like to see us have the same approach that we had yesterday against everybody,” Ball-Malone continued. “We need to have the same approach and play against the best version of ourselves.”

UCF charges on into the weekend for another matchup against the Maryland Terrapins at 7 p.m. on Saturday at the UCF Softball Complex.