• Final stats

Sophomore Alea White (17-7) threw her sixth shutout of the season to help the UCF Knights defeat the Houston Cougars 3-0 in Houston, Texas, on Thursday night.

White allowed just three hits and had three strikeouts across her 7.0 innings of work, giving the Knights (23-12, 4-0 in American Athletic Conference) their fourth-straight win to open conference play.

The win for the Knights wasn’t always a certainty, however, as the offense wasn’t able to get going until the top of the seventh inning. After tallying just four hits across the first six innings, the UCF bats finally came to life.

After sophomore center fielder Kyra Klarkowski reached first on an error, designated player Hayley Bejarano singled to put runners on the corners with one out. A pop up to the infield made it seem like Houston (21-11, 2-2 in AAC) might be able to get out of the jam, but freshman Denali Schappacher and sophomore Aubrey Johnson followed up with RBI singles.

Senior Courtney Rotton finished the scoring with a ground ball to third that was misplayed, allowing the Knights to score their third run.

The Cougars showed signs of life in the bottom half of the inning with a one-out double and then a two-out single, but White was able to close the door by forcing a groundout to short to end the game.

With her 17th win of the year, White remains in a tie for first place on the national leaderboard.

UCF had a balanced attack on offense, as Bejarano was the only player with a multi-hit game while five others had one hit.

The Knights had chances early in the game, but it was a pitcher’s duel for most of the time.

In the fourth, Rotton and catcher Cassady Brewer led off the inning with back-to-back singles. After a sacrifice bunt advanced the runners to second and third, the Knights’ offense stalled, as Houston escaped the inning with two groundouts.

White was able to limit Houston’s chances on offense, as the Cougars were only able to send more than four batters to the plate in an inning once, and that came in the seventh.

Who’s Next?

The Knights will next take on the Houston Cougars, again, on Friday at 7 p.m. before finishing the three-game series on Saturday at 1 p.m. UCF will return home for a mid-week game against the No. 4 University of Florida (28-4) on Tuesday at 6 p.m. at the UCF Softball Complex.

For more on the Knights, as they look to extend their winning streak, follow Kevin Craig on Twitter at @TheKCraig.