DIAMOND PREVIEW: at Florida / River City Leadoff

2/5/2025 6:00:00 PM

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - North Florida softball kicks off its 2025 season slate with an instant challenge on the road against No. 2 Florida on Thursday, Feb. 6, followed with hosting its annual River City Leadoff tournament from Feb. 7-9 at UNF Softball Complex.

UNF will see the Gators in Gainesville, Fla., at 6 p.m., on opening day, and will go right into the River City Leadoff to start off the season at home for a fifth straight year. The teams in the tourney will feature Western Carolina, Jacksonville State and Jacksonville, with UNF playing Jax State twice and Western Carolina three times.

The Ospreys are coming off a historic season that featured a team that made it all the way to the ASUN Championship game, but fell in extra innings to FGCU in Oxford, Ala. They return do-it-all utility weapon Allison Benning, along with Second Team All-ASUN Hadlee Reichert in the infield and Preseason All-ASUN Kristen Caravaca as the team's backstop.

The season-opening road game against Florida will be streamed on SECN+. There will be no stream for any games this weekend during the River City Leadoff. Updates for each game will be made through live stats, as well as on X/Twitter at @OspreySB and Instagram at @OspreysSB.

LAST GAME'S LINEUP
LAST TIME OUT

Position	Player	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	LOB
CF	Federico, Madisyn	5	2	4	1	0	0	0
2B	Reichert, Hadlee	2	1	0	0	1	2	0
DP/P	Benning, Allison	2	1	1	0	3	1	0
LF	Glover, Shannon	5	1	0	2	0	2	3
1B	Jackson, Logan	4	0	1	1	0	0	2
RF	Culp, Chloe	4	0	2	0	0	0	1
PR	Nagy, Marley	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
C	Caravaca, Kirsten	4	0	0	0	0	0	0
SS	Channell, Savannah	4	0	0	0	0	0	3
3B	Annett, Abi	4	1	1	0	0	1	1
P	Arends, Halle	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Totals	34	6	9	4	4	6	10

OXFORD, Ala. - No. 2 North Florida softball (35-19, 17-7 ASUN) earned a trip to the ASUN Championship final after their early afternoon victory, 6-2, against No. 1 Eastern Kentucky (42-10, 21-3 ASUN), but fell later in the title game to No. 4 Florida Gulf Coast (37-19, 16-8 ASUN), 7-6, in eight innings on Saturday afternoon.

The Ospreys received three ASUN All-Tournament Team selections for their stellar performances over the conference championship week. Allison Benning, Shannon Glover and Madisyn Federico all received such honors at the conclusion of the game.

Benning pitched 13.1 of the 14 innings over the pair of games with 209 pitches thrown, 13 strikeouts, three earned runs and five hits allowed. In the second game of the day against FGCU, she came in relief for Arends and only allowed one hit on 96 pitches.

UNF finishes its banner year with 35 wins overall and 17 conference wins, as it was only the second 35+ win season for the program since 2014. It was also the third ASUN Championship title game appearance in five seasons for the Ospreys.

University of North Florida Athletics

DIAMOND PREVIEW: at Florida / River City Leadoff

UPCOMING SOFTBALL SCHEDULE

at Florida / River City Leadoff