TULSA, Oklahoma – Karissa Ornelas’ solo home run in the top of the fourth inning stood up as the gamewinner and Gianna Mancha worked four shutout innings of one-hit relief to lead UCF to a 3-2 win against USF Friday afternoon in a semifinal game of the American Athletic Conference Softball Championship at the Collins Family Softball Complex.
The win sends the Knights (39-16-1) to the championship final for the first time since 2015, when UCF topped Tulsa for its first American title. It will be the third appearance in the final for UCF, which also played for the championship in 2014.
Ornelas’ home run, her fifth of the season, came with one out in the fourth inning after USF had tied the game in the bottom of the third. She drove a 2-0 pitch to straightaway center to break a 2-2 tie.
Mancha, meanwhile, closed the door on the Bulls with four scoreless innings in which she retired 10 of the final 11 batters she faced. Mancha struck out seven and walked two while allowing one hit to pick up the win and improve to 14-5 on the year.
UCF had built a 2-0 cushion before USF starting pitcher Georgina Corrick could record an out as the first three Knight batters reached base. Alysse Volpe and Denali Schappacher opened with base hits, and both came around to score after a throwing error on Jada Cody’s sacrifice bunt, giving the Knights a 2-0 lead.
The Bulls (29-17) chipped away to tie it in the second and third innings as Brooke Hartman hit a solo home run well over the leftfield fence with two outs in the bottom of the second, and Kyndall Williams doubled to right-center in the bottom of the third to make it 2-2.
After Ornelas put UCF on top with her solo shot, the Bulls threatened to tie it or take the lead in the bottom of the fourth as the first two batters reached on a base hit and a walk. But reliever Mancha struck out the side to stand the two runners to keep the Knights on top.
Schappacher went 2-for-3 to finish as the only UCF player with multiple hits as the Knights managed five hits off of Corrick (22-7), who had settled down to allow five hits and only one earned run in a complete-game outing.
USF managed only three hits off of Mancha and Knights starter Alea White, who worked three innings and allowed two hits and two runs (one earned) with two strikeouts.