UCF third baseman Courtney Rotton and first baseman Cassady Brewer have a special kind of bond.

“Oh she’s one of my best friends,” junior Rotton explained. “We have a lot of fun together –she’s always there to pick me up whenever I need her and I try to be there as much as I can for her when she need’s me.”

But before uniting at UCF these two Central Florida natives were fierce competitors. Rotton at East Ridge and Brewer at Apopka High School.

“It was funny coming here with Courtney because I played against her a lot in past travel ball years and high school and I always thought ‘dang, she’s real good,’” sophomore Brewer said.

This friendship ultimately setting the foundation for a stellar freshman campaign for Brewer, who batted .455 and earned American Conference Rookie of the Year honors---while Rotton posted nearly a .300 average—the two pushing each other to be great.

“She did awesome last year in conference –it was awesome to see her adjust and step up and become one of our leaders,” Rotton added.

Success has been evident with the Knights advancing to the NCAA Tournament seven of the last 12 seasons, with the last three reaching the region finals.

This year though will be a much different task as they graduated 10 off last year’s squad—having to rely heavily on their under classmen to continue the winning tradition.

“We are a young team now technically,” Brewer explained. “We were an old team last year and a young team this year. I think though our team chemistry is a lot better this year and we are going to do great because how we all want each other to succeed.”

The local duo will act –not only as vocal leaders but will be depended on to produce runs--batting back-to-back in the order-- Brewer in the three-hole and Rotton at cleanup.

“We are very similar people and very similar players so with that I think –we will be the dynamic duo this year so I hope we can perform and help our team as much as we can,” Rotton added.

Now the Knights also added UCF grad and East Ridge High alum Kahley Novak to the coaching staff and freshman pitcher Alea White (Cambridge Christian) and infielder Tamesha Glover (Eustis) to the roster rounding out the local flare.