UCF softball loses freshman starting pitcher Hildie Dempsey to injury
· Yahoo Sports
UCF softball lost a crucial piece to its pitching staff after freshman lefthander Hildie Dempsey announced in a statement on Monday that she will miss the rest of the season after suffering an ACL and meniscus injury.
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Dempsey took to social media to share the news of the injury that occurred earlier this month.
“I experienced an ACL and meniscus injury that has unfortunately led to my season ending early,” Dempsey said in a statement on X. “This patch was definitely unexpected and not how I envisioned my freshman season happening, but I put full faith in God and His timing.”
The Wisconsin native also said she would be medically redshirting this season.
Dempsey took the mound 13 times this season, starting in six games and finishing with an impressive 6-0 record. She led the team with an outstanding ERA of 1.88 and ranked second in innings pitched with a total of 41, while allowing 11 earned runs on 34 hits, walking 15 batters and striking out 15.
It was the latest in a stretch of tough news for a Knights’ squad that was swept in a three-game series by No. 2 Texas Tech last weekend. It was the second straight conference series loss for UCF, which had previously lost two out of three games against Baylor on March 13-15.
“We’re still very young, but that’s not an excuse,” said coach Cindy Ball-Malone. “We want to be at our best and right now, we are at a point in our year that’s not our best. I’m not mad at that, but I’m ready to move on.”
Dempsey’s injury took place right before UCF opened Big 12 play with a three-game road series at No. 12 Oklahoma State. The Knights took two out of the three games on March 6-8, but are 2-5 since leaving Stillwater.
“People probably think that these last two weeks were because of it [Dempsey’s injury], but we all knew before the Oklahoma State series and we rallied,” Ball-Malone explained.
In her absence, UCF is expected to shift more work toward starters Isabella Vega (8-4) and Ava Stuewe (5-4).
“We’re going with the two of them a little bit more than we have in the past,” said Ball-Malone. “But someone else needs to step up and rise to the occasion and have their teammates’ backs.”
UCF (24-10, 3-6 Big 12) travels to Houston (17-18, 1-8 Big 12) for a three-game series starting on Friday and Ball-Malone has some things she wants to see from her team.
“Our pitchers need a lead. We need to eliminate those freebies [walks] and I’ve been saying it, but like they’re too good not to. I know that we gave up some runs with the walks, but we also neutralized some of those bats of some very, very good hitters,” she said. “Our offense needs to understand that we are just as lethal as any other offense out there. If one person is having a bit of a down day, it’s one person; it’s not the entire team.
“The beauty part of it, we still have about 19 to 20 games to go, so there’s a good stretch there where we can play Knights softball.”
Please find me on X, Bluesky or Instagram @osmattmurschel. Email: [email protected]. Sign up for the Sentinel’s Knights Weekly newsletter for a roundup of all our UCF coverage.