ORLANDO, Fla. – Facing its sixth ranked team of the season already, the FGCU softball team could not pull off the upset of #24 Central Florida, Friday evening, falling to the Knights, 9-2. The Eagles fall to 7-12 on the season while UCF improves to 12-7.
"UCF is a very good team and we let them jump ahead early," said head coach
David Deiros. "It makes it tough when you are behind multiple runs after one inning, so we've got to get off to better starts, which will ultimately help us win games. We get two more opportunities tomorrow to try to get back in the win column."
Five different players had a hit for the Eagles with the highlight of the night being a home run by redshirt-senior
Cana Davis (Harrisonburg, Va./Turner Ashby HS/Virginia Tech), her first dinger as an Eagle. Graduate student
Hope Hernandez (Tampa, Fla./Chamberlain HS/Troy) also picked up her sixth RBI of the season.
UCF jumped out to an early lead as they scored four runs in the first and two more in the second.
The Eagles got on the board in the third as freshman
Madi Wicker (Minneola, Fla./East Ridge HS) led off the inning with her first-career hit before coming around to score on a single by Hernandez.
The Knights got the run back in the bottom of the inning, but in the top of the fourth, Davis smacked a home run to center to try to jump-start an Eagles comeback. Unfortunately, that was as close as FGCU would get as UCF added two more runs in the fifth to produce the final score.
Gianna Mancha earned the win for the Knights as she threw a complete game with 10 strikeouts. Maddie Bejarano and Jada Cody each had two RBI for UCF.
The Eagles will return tomorrow for two more games in Orlando. They will take on South Carolina at 12 p.m. before battling UCF once again at 5 p.m.
FOLLOW ALONG
For up-to-the-minute information on the FGCU softball program, follow on Twitter @FGCU_Softball and Instagram at fgcusoftball and stay tuned at FGCUAthletics.com.
COACH DEIROS
The founding father of FGCU softball,
David Deiros is in his 20th season as head coach during the 2022 campaign. Hired in 2001 to build the program from the dirt up, Deiros has since guided the Eagles to a 695-375-3 (.653), going 162-93 (.632) in the ASUN, having 15 seasons with a winning record, and nine campaigns with 35 wins. Deiros is a former head coach at the 1998 Florida State Runner-up Lely High School in Naples and is the founding head coach of the 1999 District Champion/2001 Regional Runner-up Gulf Coast High School in Naples.
E.A.G.L.E. CAMPAIGN
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#FEEDFGCU
FGCU Athletics sponsors events in November and April to benefit the FGCU Campus Food Pantry (www.fgcu.edu/foodpantry) and the Harry Chapin Food Bank (www.harrychapinfoodbank.org), FGCU Athletics' charities of choice. For more information, including how to make a contribution, please visit www.fgcu.edu/foodpantry and utilize the hashtag #FeedFGCU to help raise awareness.
ABOUT FGCU
FGCU teams have combined to win an incredible 89 conference regular season and tournament titles in just 14+ seasons at the Division I level. Additionally, in just 10 seasons of D-I postseason eligibility, the Eagles have had a combined 43 teams or individuals compete in NCAA championships. Eight FGCU programs have earned a top-25 national ranking in their respective sport - including women's basketball (No. 20, 2021-22), beach volleyball (No. 20, 2022) and both men's soccer (2018, 2019) and women's soccer (2018) as three of the most recent. In 2016-17, the Green and Blue posted a department-best sixth-place finish in the DI-AAA Learfield Directors' Cup and top-100 showing nationally, ahead of several Power-5 and FBS institutions. In 2018-19, the Eagles had an ASUN and state of Florida best seven teams earn the NCAA's Public Recognition Award for their Academic Progress Rate in their sport. FGCU also collectively earned a record 3.50 GPA in the classroom in the fall 2020 semester and has outperformed the general University undergraduate population for 25 consecutive semesters. The past five semesters (Fall 2019 – Fall 2021) each saw another milestone reached as all 15 programs achieved a 3.0-or-higher team GPA in each. The Eagles also served an all-time high 7,200 volunteer hours in 2017 - being recognized as one of two runners-up for the inaugural NACDA Community Service Award presented by the Fiesta Bowl.
