Shocker SB at UCF

[flyingMoose]

The Shockers begin their AAC schedule with a trip to Orlando to play Central Florida. Conference weekends consist of single games on Friday (5 pm), Saturday (3 pm), and Sunday (10 am). All times are CT.

UCF have a record of 18-16, but they play a very rigorous schedule. They are 2-10 against teams ranked at the time and 4-2 against RV teams. They started the season ranked 18 in the NFCA Preseason Poll but have dropped from there and are now RV32nd. They are the Preseason pick to win the AAC, edging out the Shockers by one point.

The three leading hitters are Chloe Evans (OPS of .991), Jada Cody (.900), and Aubrey Evans (.891). C. Evans and Cody are among four players who have a team-leading four home runs.

The Bulls have three pitchers whose IP and starts are tightly bunched: Grace Jewell (ERA of 2.35, WHIP of 1.09), Sarah Willis (2.67, 1.29), and Kaitlyn Felton (3.44, 1.57).

The record for the Shocks is 24-6. Lolo now has the leading OPS on the team at 1.379 with eight homers. Following are Sydney (1.372), Addison (1.109 and six homers), Lauren (1.052), and Zoe (1.030 and eight homers).

The Conference regular champion may well be determined in this series. Hopefully, Lo came here to win the AAC in addition to beating Arkansas.

[flyingMoose]

Game One

Shockers at UCF

Lineup (changes): Syd, Addie, Lauren, Zoe, Lolo, Sami, Bailey RF, Lainee, Camryn 3B with Alison in the circle. No Taylor, no Krystin. Sarah Willis is pitching for the Knights.


After Sydney grounds out to open the game, Addison slams her seventh home run. 1-0 in the middle of the first.

Alison starts by giving up an infield single, a triple, and a double. 2-1 Knights with no UCF outs yet. After two fly outs, a walk and a hit batter load the bases. A comebacker ends the inning. UCF 2-1 after one.

Bailey works a two-out walk in the second, but Lainee strikes out. With two outs, UCF doubles and singles to score a run. A four-pitch walk follows, and Alex is in the circle. A ground out ends the inning. Knights 3-1 after two.

Nothing doing in the Shocker third. A single and a wild pitch but no runs for the Knights. 3-1 after three.

[1972Shocker]

Pretty shaky start for Alison but after the first 3 batters got hits it could have been a lot worse.

[1972Shocker]

1st inning color comments:

Alison starts by giving up an infield single...this was a 2 hopper up the middle that Sami was able to get to but her throw to first was just a hair late. Would have been an outstanding play if she would have been able to make it.

A comebacker ends the inning......not exactly a comebacker. It was a swinging bunt by a pretty fast plyer that rolled about 25 feet down the 1st base line that Alison field and had to make a quick backhanded toss to Zoe to get the out. A really nice play especially with the bases loaded.

2nd inning color comments:

Looked to me like Lolo just missed getting out to left leading off the inning. As it was the leftfielder made a nice running, backhand grab.

UCF's Willis has a pretty decent changeup.

Nice play by Sami to end the Knights at bat.

3rd inning color comments:

Syd called out on a questionable call. Looked to be in the river away.

Addison hit a grounder that went between the pitcher's legs but she did not hit it real hard and the shortstop nipped on a close play at 1st.

4th inning color comments:

Lolo struck out on full count check swing call by the home plate ump. I thought she checked. The home plate ump should have asked for help on that one. Probably cost the Shockers a run.

Willis getting good mileage out of her nice changeup but Sami did a good job hitting a change back up the middle for a single.

Home plate ump calls favoring UCF so far.

Nice catch on a sinking liner in left by Addison of the 1st out of the UCF 4th.

UCF 3rd baseman Jada Cody dominating the Shocker pitchers. She as a triple and 2 doubles in her 3 at bats.

5th inning color comments:

Camryn hits the ball sharply to 3rd that went right between Cody's legs. Ruled an error and I think that was the right call. But more importantly Syd and Addie were due up. Then something you rarely see is Syd hitting into a double play. A grounder to the left of of the shortstop the carried her right ot the bag where she stepped on the bag and threw to 1st to nip Syd.

For UCF a lead off blooper falls just fair in short left. The runner then steals on the next pitch. Alex then fielded a high chop to her right and threw low to first but Zoe made a nice play the in between hop with the runner moving to 3rd. The Shocks bring the infield in. On a grounder to Sami the runner on 3rd took a couple of steps towards home and stopped and Sami made a perfect throw behind her to get the 2nd out. Alex gets a strikeout on a rise ball that was well out of the strike zone.

6th inning color comments:

Lulu lines a 1-out double just fair down the left field line and then moves to 3rd on a fly out to right. Lolo hit a high chop back to the pitcher who dropped the ball on the exchange but Lulu had to hold at 3rd. Then Sami popped up to first to end the Shocker threat.

Alex works a quick 6-pitch bottom of the 6th helped by a runner leaving 1st early for the 3rd out.

7th inning color comments:

7,8 and 9 up for the Shocks and they go down quickly and meekly.

UCF wins 3-1 and looked like the better team in this one and got much better pitching form Willis then the Shocks did. But Alex battled and scrapped and kept the Shocks in the game but the Shocks simply could not deliver on the few scoring opportunities they had.

Shocks need to regroup and bounce back tomorrow.

[flyingMoose]

In the Shocker fourth, Zoe singles with one out and Sami singles with two outs, but Bailey strikes out. UCF doubles with one out and a wild pitch puts the runner at third with two outs. Alex gets a pop out to end the threat. UCF 3-1 after four.

Camryn reaches on an error with one out in the fifth, but Syd grounds into a DP. The SS must have been on top of second base to double-up Syd.

A single, steal, and ground out puts a UCF runner in third with one out. Sami then throws out that runner (going back into third?). Sounds like the runner started for home and tried to get back? Got in a rundown? No matter, no runs for the Knights. Still 3-1 after five.

Lauren doubles with one out and advances to third on a fly out by Zoe. Lolo reaches on an error by the pitcher, but Lauren holds at third. Sami fouls out for the third out. UCF 3-1 in the middle of the sixth.

An infield single starts the sixth for the Knights. With two outs, the runner leaves early on an attempted steal for the third out. To the seventh with UCF still leading, 3-1, and the bottom of the order up for the Shocks.

Six pitches later (groundout, groundout, strikeout), the Knights have the win.

Shockers 1-3 UCF


Only four hits for the Shocks with Addie's homer being the only run. Willis struck out six and walked one. Alex did well over her 4.1 innings. She gave up four hits and fanned two.

Attendance for this game was 762.

[flyingMoose]

Game Two

UCF SB Twitter says this game is Sold Out. [Actually, probably still at Volleyball at the start of this one.]

Lineup:

[WuDrWu]

Game Two

UCF SB Twitter says this game is Sold Out. [Actually, probably still at Volleyball at the start of this one.]

Lineup:

Really looking forward to your report on Volleyball. I have to choose today....and I hate to choose, but I will be at baseball.

[1972Shocker]

Just got back from the Volleyball scrimmage vs KSU. Generally, pretty good play by the Shocks I thought. I will comment later on the VB thread but I have posted some live updates from the 5 sets.

Parking was at premium at Koch Arena due to the Shocker Track and Field teams opening their outdoor season with the Shocker Spring Invitational.

I see the baseball team had a Ground Hogs day moment as they repeated a 12-2 (7 inning) run-rule game today to match Friday's win.

I don't think I want to comment on the softball game until it's over. But I did notice that Taylor Sedlacek has not been in the lineup in the either of the 2 UCF games after being replaced by Bailey Urban early in the KU game. I have no idea what is going on with Taylor. I know Taylor had struck out in 5 of her last 7 at bats but it's not like Bailey is tearing it up either.

[1972Shocker]

Game 2 - Shockers vs UCF

Shockers 6 - UCF 0

Nice to see LaurenH get back on track with a complete game shutout in what statistically looks like she brought her lunch pail and hard hat today and battled through. While she allowed 7 hits, all 7 were singles. She walked 3 and struck out 3 and stranded 11 UCF runners on base. So clearly this was no rocking chair game but she made the pitches and got the outs when she needed them.

Zoe Jones lead the Shocker offense going 3-4 with a home run, 3 runs scored and 2 runs batted in. Lauren Mills was 2-3 plus a walk including a home run with 1 run scored and 2 runs batted in. So today was the middle of the lineups turn to shine.

Taylor Sedlacek did make a pinch hitting appearance so apparently she is not injured.

Huge game tomorrow with major implications for the AAC regular season title at stake (if with this being the opening series of AAC play). It will be interesting to see who the Shockers go with in the circle tomorrow but I imagine Lauren, Alison and Alex will all be ready to go any and all of them will be on short leashes.

Looking forward to watching the replay tonight.

[flyingMoose]

I know Taylor had struck out in 5 of her last 7 at bats but it's not like Bailey is tearing it up either.

When neither one is hitting, you go with the better defender. At least that is my take on it.

[flyingMoose]

Game Two

UCF SB Twitter says this game is Sold Out.

Attendance was 1082.

[shocks02]

Aguilar getting the start. Sedlacek and Nelson back in the lineup. This is a big one today!

[SubGod22]

Take no prisoners!!!

Zoe with the grand slam to put the Shox up 7-1 in the 2nd. UCF making another pitching change

[WuDrWu]

Got her arms extended, ready to shoot on a 3-1 pitch and Zoe blew this one open big time with the grand salami. I had tuned in to the USF ECU game just to see how the future competition looked and the announcers were talking about how surprised they were at some of the scores of the other conference games this weekend like UCF keeping WSU to 1 run on Friday and then leading 1-0 today. Maybe sending WSU a message.....their post 3 run comments were like well WSU flexing a bit now against UCF, they might be mad, followed by 7-1 yeah I think they're mad.

[SubGod22]

2 out hitting has been the difference. Cek and Brown with back to back hits to RF. Taylor with a single down the line then Lainee hitting one off the wall to score Taylor to add one more for a 8-3 lead