The No. 2 Central Florida Golden Knights pulled off an upset of the top-seeded Houston softball team to claim the Conference USA Championship on Saturday at Cougar Softball Stadium.
UH (50-9) fell to UCF (46-18) 4-2 in the finals, the second time that the Golden Knights have defeated the Cougars this season.
Senior pitcher Angel Shamblin, who started all the games for the Cougars in the tournament, dropped her third loss on the season. She gave up 11 hits and allowed four runs in the game.
Two of those came in the top of the third inning. UCF freshman catcher Abby McClain doubled and scored on an error, and junior infielder Breanne Javier brought home freshman infielder Tiffany Lane, who reached base on a single.
Houston answered in the bottom of the third when junior infielder Christa Raley reached first on a UCF error and scored freshman pitcher Baillie Lott, who reached base on a single. The run brought the score to 2-1.
The Cougars continued to battle and tied the game at 2 in the fifth when three consecutive Cougars hit singles to score senior infielder Amanda Grote.
However, UCF’s Lane hit a two-run homer in the sixth, bringing in senior outfielder Ashley Van Ryn, to put UCF up 4-2. The Golden Knights held on to the lead and captured their first C-USA Championship since joining the league in 2006.