In the UCF Knights’ first weekend this season, they faced one of their bigger challenges of the season — a game against then-No. 5 Alabama. This is how UCF would get its difficult schedule started off, testing both Shelby Turnier’s ability to get around a difficult lineup and the offense’s ability to produce.
Everything went right that day. Everything.
It had to because the Knights were not going to hit the ball out of the park any time soon. They had to generate their offense through small ball.
The first inning saw the Knights score two runs on a walk, single, single, single, single. The second inning saw two runs on a hit by pitch, sacrifice bunt, single, hit by pitch, single. The fourth inning saw three runs scored on by double, single, error, double.
The formula was relatively similar throughout the rest of the day in the 8-1 win. This was going to be the formula for UCF throughout the rest of the season.
“I think it’s very important because I don’t think we necessarily need a bunch of home runs to be able to score the runs,” Courtney Rotton said after the Alabama game. “If we get runners in scoring position with [Linnea Goodman] and [Brittney Solis] getting on base and leading [Jessica Ujvari] and I up, it is easy to get a little base hit and bring them in.
“It is really nice knowing I have Cassady [Brewer] and [Kalyn Cenal] and Autumn [Gillespie] behind me to just bring me in. And I have high hopes for them to get on base.”
This was UCF at its finest tuning.
The only problem with small ball however is that sometimes the offense is not there. Those small hits do not always get runners in scoring position. The machine is easily disrupted with only three precious outs to spend.
The Knights have scored eight runs just six times in the 31 games since that win over the Crimson Tide. Offense has not been easy as UCF went from beating Alabama to taking a close loss at home to Auburn before losing all five games at the prestigious Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic.
The Knights are averaging 4.1 runs per game and have just 52 extra-base hits, 23.6 percent of their total hits this season. This is a team that gets the majority of its offense on singles. As a team, UCF is hitting only .262.
The Knights have Shelby Turnier to dominate from the pitcher’s circle. That keeps the offense in many games. But there are still difficulties and the focus has to go to the offense.
Pitching, coach Renee Leurs-Gillispie said after that win over Alabama, has never been the problem for UCF. It was about the hitting for this team to take a step forward. It was the piece to the puzzle that was missing.
With the first round of softball RPI coming out, UCF has played 12 games against teams ahead of them at No. 34. The Knights have gone 2-10, but have gotten outscored 64-34. The Knights are posting less than three runs per game in these marquee games.
Turnier and the Knights’ pitching staff can keep them in the game for sure. The offense will have its opportunities to win games. With conference season coming up, the time for the Knights to bank up quality wins is coming to a close — Wednesday, they play RPI No. 49 Kent State with Florida State and Florida still on the schedule.
What UCF has learned through the non-conference season is that pitching will have to carry the day again. The offense comes in fits and starts, able to dominate weaker opponents but struggling to generate much after that big Alabama win to start the season against bigger non-conference opponents.
UCF is trying to build its offense one hit at a time. That has just been the process for this team.
