Florida Softball - National Champion 14 15

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To Delanie Gourley's credit, she did have a 3 up and 3 down 3rd inning. However, the UF offense took the game out of her hands by scoring 1 run in the bottom of the 2nd and 12 runs in the bottom of the 3rd. It seemed like the bottom of the 3rd took about an hour to play. In the top of the 4th, Tim Walton brought in Lauren Haeger who had been playing and in fact hit 2 homers in the game. My guess is Gourley wasn't as pitch ready as Haeger after the long inning and Walton didn't want to risk injury. It'll be interesting to see if Walton comments on the pitching change in his post game comments.

The weekend was a fiasco for South Carolina who was 5 inning run ruled in all three games:

Game 1: 10-2
Game 2: 19-0
Game 3: 16-3

UF closed the week at 4-0. The Gators record advanced to 36-4 (8-4).

South Carolina 3 (RECORD 26-15)

#3 Florida 16 (RECORD 36-4)

TEAM 1 2 3 4 5 R H E L

SC 3 0 0 0 0 3 2 2 2
UF 0 1 12 3 X 16 17 0 5

Final - W: Delanie Gourley (8-1); L: Julie Sarratt (14-8);

[Deleted]

I like what Tim Walton is going to do to get Gourley's groove back. UF needs a 3 headed monster in the pitching circle:


Saturday April 4, 2015

Walton beats rain, Gators beat Gamecocks for first SEC sweep this season.


GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- There was no reason to tempt fate.

The third-ranked Florida Gators had tattooed a double-digit lead on South Carolina for the second time in two hours Saturday at Pressly Stadium and thus were on the verge of their first Southeastern Conference series sweep of the season.

It’s the first week in April, so there’s lots of time to fix whatever is wrong with sophomore pitcher Delanie Gourley. UF coach Tim Walton -- with an eye toward the threatening clouds to the north -- wasted no time determining that was an issue for another day.

Enter Lauren Haeger with a huge lead in the fourth.

Exit the Gators with that much-needed sweep six outs later.

“We didn’t want to sit here and waste the day away,” Walton said of the threat of a rain delay. “We wanted to get it over with.”

Did they ever. Try 16-3, thanks to a couple homers and six RBI from Haeger, plus four of the team’s 17 hits from red-hot second baseman Kelsey Stewart. That lopsided victory paired nicely with the first game of the double-dip when the Gators rolled the Gamecocks 19-0. Throw in Friday’s 10-2 win in the series opener and UF totaled 45 runs (to USC's five), shattering the record for most in a three-game series.

“We’ve been working really hard on getting our bats going again, [with] line drives, ground balls,” Haeger said. “We worked hard on it all week and we’re glad it paid off.”

More like ecstatic. Especially after failing to finish off potential series sweeps the last two weekends at SEC venues. The Gators (36-4, 8-4) dropped Game 3s at both Alabama and Mississippi State, including a blown 3-0 lead in the seventh in the later series that ended when freshman Alesha Ocasio served up five runs, with the last three on a walk-off homer.

So there was a sense of urgency to finish off the Gamecocks (26-15, 2-10). Even more so when a steady rain started coming down.

“We wanted a sweep,” Haeger said. “We just had to buckle down.”

As for Gourley, the talented lefty is going through a funk right now, with her ERA having climbed to 2.32 after surrendering 12 earned runs over her previous 12 2/3 innings.

After Ocasio held USC to just four hits in the 19-0 blowout Saturday, Gourley started Game 3 by hitting a batter and then serving up a 3-run homer in the first inning to stick the Gators in an early hole.

Credit Gourley for settling down after that -- she surrendered just one more hit in her three innings -- but after the Gators bombarded Gamecocks starter Julie Sarratt for 12 runs in the third inning alone, Walton saw the grayish clouds on the horizon, felt a few drops here and there, and pulled the trigger.

Right call.

Florida has some big SEC series ahead, with Kentucky coming in next weekend and a road trip to Georgia after that. Heck, the Gators go to Florida State for a tough one Wednesday night. They are going to need Gourley to get her groove back.

But they did not need her to find it Saturday.

“We’re going to have to change how she comes out of the bullpen,” said Walton, adding he plans to give his players a day off from defense drills, line ‘em against Gourley and see what happens. “Her stuff is plenty good enough to win. We’re going to need to look at her routine and figure out what we need to change to make her more effective.”

She probably could have benefited from a pressure-free few innings Saturday with a 13-3 lead after three, but there was too many other really good things going on for the Gators. Like the opportunity to win two games the same day in mercey-rule fashion and enjoy an off Easter Sunday with a sweep in the review.

When Haeger got the final out, setting South Carolina down 1-2-3 in the top of the fifth, there was a unison chant in the UF dugout.

“Sweep!”

Sweet.

[Deleted]

UF plays a tough schedule this week playing a midweek game at 8/10 ranked FSU on Wednesday night and home series against 13/15 ranked UK starting Friday night.

UF is ranked #3 again this week in both polls. LSU was moved up to #1 in both polls after a 4-0 week and Oregon down to #2 after a 2-1 week. The Gators also had a 4-0 week so they should be sitting at #2 having two wins over both #2 Oregon and #4 Michigan in neutral tournaments, 2-1 at 6/7 ranked bama, and possess the #1 RPI. The only team that should be ranked ahead of UF is LSU. The tigers came to Gainesville and won 2 of 3.

The fly in the ointment at Oregon is the duckies are a 1 ace pitcher team. Behind Cheridan Hawkins is no one approaching her talent level. LSU has 4 quality pitchers and UF has 3 quality pitchers. As good as Hawkins is, UF has beaten her twice, in a neutral California tournament this season and in the CWS last season when UF went on to win the national championship. That hasn't stopped the pollsters from ranking the duckies ahead of the Gators plus giving the duckies a bunch of #1 votes in the process. I don't get the voters fascination with the duckies insofar as having them ahead of UF. It appears they just don't want to have two SEC teams ranked 1 & 2 whether they deserve the rankings or not.

The more I think about Oregon being ranked ahead of Florida, the more pissed off I get. UF beat Oregon and its ace Cheridan Hawkins twice in the 14 season. Besides the 4-0 win over the duckies in the CWS, the Gators also won 2-1 in 8 innings at the Disney Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando beating Hawkins the first time.

UF won the first game this season 3-0 in California over the duckies/Hawkins. With Hawkins 3 straight losses against UF, the duckies put up a nobody pitcher whom the Gators beat 5-1 the next week in another California tournament.

To sum up:

UF has beaten Oregon 4 games over the last two seasons by a combined 14-2 score while beating the duckies only ace pitcher 3 times.

UF has a better overall record than Oregon.

UF has the #1 RPI in the land going 7-3 against top 10 competition; 1-2 home vs. #1 LSU, 2-0 neutral vs. #2 Oregon, 2-0 neutral vs. #4 Michigan, and 2-1 at #6 Alabama.

UF won the second game in California to raise their all-time mark against the duckies to 9-2, including an 8-2 record under Tim Walton. UF has won eight consecutive games in the series dating back to Feb. 9, 2007.

However, the pollsters see fit to rank Oregon ahead of Florida. WHAT THE HELL ARE THE VOTERS SMOKING!

[Deleted]

Game Time: 6:00 PM EDT

Tuesday April 7, 2015

In-State Rivalry Pits Top-10 Foes as Gators, Seminoles Meet in Tallahassee


Gainesville, Fla. – The 3rd ranked Gator Softball team (36-4) will visit 8th ranked in-state rival Florida State (33-9) on Wednesday for the first of two meetings in this season’s Share a Little Sunshine Showdown. The Gators have won four of the last five games in the series and are riding a seven-game winning streak in Tallahassee that dates back to 2008.


QUICKLY: Florida Team Notes

· Florida is coming off a three-game sweep of South Carolina, during which the Gators outscored the Gamecocks by a combined margin of 45-5.

· UF scored in double figures in each game against SC, marking the first time in school history that the Orange and Blue tallied 10 or more runs in all three games of a conference series.

· The pitching trio of Delanie Gourley, Lauren Haeger and Aleshia Ocasio holds the highest per-game strikeout rate in the Southeastern Conference.



GATOR BITES: Florida Player Notes

· Kathlyn Medina is a finalist for the Senior CLASS Award. Fans can vote daily via multiple devices thru May 11 at SeniorCLASSAward.com.

· Kelsey Stewart (18) and Kirsti Merritt (14) both have more stolen bases than the Gator pitching staff has allowed (10).

· Stewart holds the highest batting average in UF history (min. 200 AB) and has set the Gator records for career triples and stolen bases.

· The Kansas native’s six triples this season ranks fifth in the country.

· Haeger has established a new UF mark for RBI.

· The Arizona native is closing in on the school record for career home runs.

· The senior was drafted by the Dallas Charge of National Pro Fastpitch last Wednesday.

· Merritt has set the UF marks for hit-by-pitches in a season and a career.



SETTING THE STAGE: Florida State

· Florida leads the all-time series, 19-14; this includes a10-7 advantage in Tallahassee.

· The Gators have outscored the Seminoles 58-14 during their seven-game win streak at JoAnne Graf Field, winning by an average margin of 8.3-2.

· Since Tim Walton became Florida’s head coach before the 2006 season, the Orange and Blue are 13-3 vs. the Garnet and Gold.

· The UF-FSU matchup features 22 players from the Sunshine State (UF - eight, FSU - 14).



BROADCAST INFORMATION

All 2015 Florida Softball games can be heard on Florida Sports Talk (1230-AM in Gainesville, 900-AM in Ocala). Adam Schick (play-by-play) and former Gator All-American Megan Bush (analysis) will the UF-FSU games.


LIVE STATS

A live stats link for Wednesday’s game can be found on the Gators’ schedule page.

[Deleted]

#3 UF downed #8 FSU 5-1 in Tallahassee. UF's record advances to 37-4. FSU fell to 33-10:


Score by Innings R H E
-----------------------------------------
Florida............. 021 110 0 - 5 9 0
Florida State....... 001 000 0 - 1 6 0
-----------------------------------------



DP - Gators 1; Seminoles 1. LOB - Gators 11; Seminoles 6. 2B - Stewart(14); DeWitt 2(6); Munro(2); East, V.(7). HR - Castro 2(11). HBP - Little. SH - DeWitt(2); Merritt(7); Kossoff, A.(6); Cheatham, M.(6). SB - Stewart(19).



Florida ip h r er bb so wp bk hbp ibb ab bf fo go
Lauren Haeger W,17-0 7.0 6 1 1 2 7 0 0 0 0 24 28 8 5

Florida State ip h r er bb so wp bk hbp ibb ab bf fo go
Schinella, B L,0-1 2.0 3 2 2 2 1 0 0 0 0 7 10 2 2

Burroughs, J 4.1 6 3 3 5 6 0 0 1 0 18 25 4 3

Rosario, K. 0.2 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 2 2 0 1



-Bailey Castro hit 2 solo homeruns in the game.

-UF is 8-3 against current top 10 teams.

[Deleted]

UP NEXT
Florida will open a three-game series against No. 13 Kentucky on Saturday at 4 p.m. ET. Live streaming will be available through participating television providers on SEC Network+via WatchESPN. WGGG (1230-AM) will have the radio broadcast with Adam Schick and former Gator All-American Megan Bush on the call, and a live stats link can be found on the schedule page on GatorZone.com.

UK played LSU and bama in back to back weeks at home. The cats split taking 2 of 3 from #1 LSU and losing 2 of 3 against bama. UF split with LSU bama too. The Gators lost 2 of 3 at home to LSU with the middle game UF loss being the best softball game I've ever seen and won 2 of 3 at bama.

UK is a good team. They were good enough to advance to the CWS last season and they are good enough to have gone 3-3 against two of the best teams in college softball. UF will have to play their best ball if the Gators are to win or sweep the series.

The series starts on Saturday and ends on Monday night.

[Deleted]

UF took game 1 against #13 UK in a 1-0 pitcher's dual. The Gators scored a run in the top of the 1st inning that Lauren Haeger (18-0) made stand up in the shutout of the wildcats. UF's record advanced to 38-4 (9-4). The Gators are 2-0 for the week after beating #8 FSU in midweek:

---R-H-E
UK 0 2 0
UF 1 3 0

A new softball attendance record of 2488 was set today. Having the game played after the Orange & Blue Game was a boost. There were many fans outside the stadium beyond the outfield fences that didn't count into the attendance record.

Game 2 is on Sunday afternoon. It can be watched online on the SEC Network+ as I was able to do in watching game 1 today.

Game 3 is on Monday evening and will be televised by the SEC Network.

[Deleted]

UF beat UK in game 2 to go to 3-0 for the week; 5-1 at #8 FSU and 1-0/6-3 home against #13 UK. The Gators breakout the brooms for UK on Monday night at 7 PM EDT on the SEC Network:


#13 Kentucky 3 (RECORD 27-13)

#3 Florida 6 (RECORD 39-4)


TEAM 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E L
UK---0 0 2 0 0 1 0 3 3 1 4
UF---0 0 0 6 0 0 X 6 8 0 8


Final - W: Aleshia Ocasio (13-3); L: Meagan Prince (11-5); S: Delanie Gourley (1)


Tim Walton brought in Delanie Gourley to close out the game who responded by putting the wildcats down in order for the save. Ocasio was looking a bit tired in the top of the 6th when she gave up a solo homerun. Of UK's 3 hits against Ocasio, 2 were homeruns. Ocasio looked tired like that when she blew the lead in the bottom of the 7th at Mississippi State costing a UF road sweep against a good SEC team. If UF loses the SEC by 1 game, you can be sure it was the blown final game at Mississippi State that was responsible for it.

I like that Walton brought in Gourley with a 3 run lead to get the save. He was all smiles when Gourley performed well. It'll be interesting to see if he goes with Haeger or Gourley in the series final on Monday night. If Gourley isn't ready, I doubt Walton will put her out there to start the game. UF is back in the SEC championship hunt at 10-4 and 1 game behind the leaders so I doubt Walton will give up a chance to sweep UK. After tomorrow night, UF will only have 9 SEC games left in the regular season. Walton won't want to risk falling behind Auburn or LSU by 2 games with 9 to play unless he feels Gourley is ready to resume her 3rd starter responsibilities.

[Deleted]

As I suspected, Lauren Haeger pitched the 1st and 3rd games of a series for the first time during the season. That means Delanie Gourley is still not right or she would have drawn the start. I hope she gets the starting role against South Florida on Wednesday night. She has to get the work. Watching her in the dugout, Delanie doesn't appear focused on the game. It's clear that Tim Walton has lost confidence in her to get the job done.

Lauren Haeger pitched a good game tonight in UF's 2-0 win and sweep of UK. She also shutout the wildcats 1-0 on Saturday:

#13 Kentucky 0 (RECORD 27-14)

#3 Florida 2 (RECORD 40-4)


TEAM 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E L
UK----0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 4
UF----1 0 0 0 1 0 X 2 6 0 8

Final - W: Lauren Haeger (19-0); L: Kelsey Nunley (11-9);

UF had the bases loaded twice and got 1 run out of it. The Gators are still leaving too many runners left in scoring position.

UF's record advanced to 40-4 (11-4).

[Deleted]

2015 Southeastern Conference Softball


STANDINGS (as of Apr 13, 2015)

SEC Overall
Team W L T Pct W L T Pct
Auburn.............. 12 3 0 .800 40 6 0 .870
Florida............. 11 4 0 .733 40 4 0 .909
LSU................. 11 4 0 .733 38 5 0 .884
Alabama............. 10 5 0 .667 31 9 0 .775
Georgia............. 11 7 0 .611 35 10 0 .778
Tennessee........... 8 7 0 .533 30 11 0 .732
Texas A&M........... 8 7 0 .533 32 12 0 .727
Missouri............ 8 7 0 .533 26 10 0 .722
Mississippi State... 9 9 0 .500 31 12 0 .721
Ole Miss............ 5 13 0 .278 23 19 0 .548
Kentucky............ 4 11 0 .267 27 14 0 .659
South Carolina...... 4 11 0 .267 29 16 0 .644
Arkansas............ 1 14 0 .067 15 27 0 .357

[Deleted]

Delanie Gourley has been off the entire season. I hope Tim Walton brings in a couple of more pitchers in the offseason to go with Aleshia Ocasio.

UF played South Florida in Tampa very early in the season. Delanie Gourley was the starter and the Gators led 2-0 until the bottom of the 3rd inning. Gourley gave up 4 runs and only registered 1 out in the inning. She was relieved by Aleshia Ocasio who finished up allowing 1 run and was the game winner. However, UF had to score 8 runs in the top of the 7th inning to pull a 10-5 victory out of the jaws of defeat:

Score by Innings 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E
Florida----------0 0 1 1 0 0 8 10 8 2
USF--------------0 0 4 0 0 0 1 5 6 3

Florida---------ip h r er bb so ab bf np
Delanie Gourley-2.1 1 4 0 3 2 8 12 57
Aleshia Ocasio--4.2 5 1 0 0 6 19 20 69

For the Wednesday night midweek game in Gainesville, I hope Tim Walton gives the ball to Delanie Gourley. Let her redemption start with the team that likely started her slide.

USF is 32-12. The bulls are a good team that has played a good schedule. Most of their losses have been to teams currently ranked 1-13:

#4 Michigan 2/7 L 4-3
#1 Florida 2/8 L 10-5
#13 Tennessee 2/14 L 9-1
#6 Auburn 2/20 L 6-2
#6 Auburn 2/22 L 8-0

USF is a good team to give Delanie Gourley a shot at. If UF losses, it's a non-conference midweek game. If Gourley can straighten herself out, the benefits for the pitching rotation this season could be great.

[Deleted]

Gatorzone's USF Game Coverage (Confirms Delanie Gourley hasn't been what she was last season since the opening weekend of the season when UF had the comeback win at USF):


Gainesville, Fla. – The second-ranked Gator Softball team (40-4) will host in-state opponent USF (32-12) on Wednesday at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium. Florida has won eight of 10 meetings against the Bulls during the last four years, including a 17-1 (5 innings) decision last year in Gainesville and a 10-5 come-from-behind win in Tampa on the opening weekend of the 2015 campaign..


QUICKLY: Florida Team Notes

· Florida is coming off a sweep of No. 13 Kentucky on Orange & Blue Weekend that followed an Easter weekend sweep of South Carolina. Between the two SEC series, the Gators defeated Sunshine State rival Florida State by a 5-1 score in Tallahassee.

· The Orange and Blue are riding an eight-game winning streak that marks the team’s longest run since a 28-game strand to open the season.

· As of Sunday, April 12, the pitching trio of Delanie Gourley, Lauren Haeger and Aleshia Ocasio holds the highest per-game strikeout rate in the Southeastern Conference.



GATOR BITES: Florida Player Notes

· Kathlyn Medina is a Senior CLASS Award finalist. Fans can vote daily via multiple devices thru May 11 at SeniorCLASSAward.com.

· Kelsey Stewart (19) and Kirsti Merritt (14) both have more stolen bases than the Gator pitching staff has allowed (10).

· Stewart holds the highest batting average in UF history (min. 200 AB) and has set the Gator records for career triples and stolen bases. She also is closing in on the career hits mark.

· The Kansas native’s six triples thru Sunday ranks fifth in the country. (Stewart added a seventh triple during Monday night’s series finale against Kentucky.)

· Haeger has established a new UF mark for RBI, while tying the school record for home runs.

· No. 17 also is closing in on the Gators’ walks record.

· The senior was drafted by the Dallas Charge of National Pro Fastpitch (NPF) on April 1.

· Merritt has set the UF marks for hit-by-pitches in a season and a career.



SETTING THE STAGE: USF

· Florida leads the all-time series, 40-13; this includes a 19-8 advantage in Gainesville.

· Since Tim Walton became Florida’s head coach before the 2006 season, the Gators are 19-2 vs. the Bulls.

· Stewart plays for the USA Softball Women’s National Team, which is helmed by USF Head Coach Ken Eriksen.

· Wednesday’s game features 15 players who are Florida natives (UF - 6, USF - 9)..



WEDNESDAY PROMOTIONS

Fireworks Night

· A fireworks display will be presented immediately following the game.



BROADCAST INFORMATION

The Florida-USF game will be streamed on SEC Network+ through WatchESPN via participating television providers only. Adam Schick (play-by-play) and former Gator All-American Megan Bush (analysis) will have the call.



All 2015 Florida Softball games can be heard on Florida Sports Talk (1230-AM in Gainesville, 900-AM in Ocala). Corey Brooks will call the Gators-Bulls game.



LIVE STATS

A live stats link for the Florida-USF game can be found on the Gators’ schedule page.

[Deleted]

USA Today/NFCA

1 Oregon (22)..........35-5
2 FLORIDA (7) .... 39-4
3 LSU (3) .................38-5
4 Michigan ..............37-6
5 Oklahoma ............36-5
6 Alabama ..............31-9
7 Auburn .................40-6
8 UCLA ....................35-8
9 La.-Lafayette ........32-5
10 Florida State .......34-11
11 Georgia ..............35-10
12 Tennessee ..........30-11
13 Minnesota ............33-7
14 Kentucky ............27-13
15 UCF ......................40-6
16 Arizona ..............33-10
17 Baylor ..................29-9
18 California .............31-9
19 Washington .......35-11
20 Missouri .............26-10
21 Arizona State......27-15
22 South Alabama ....31-7
23 James Madison ....32-6
24 Texas A&M .........32-12
25 Notre Dame ........32-11



ESPN.com / USA Softball

1 FLORIDA (9) .... 39-4
2 Oregon (8) ...........35-5
3 LSU (2) .................38-5
4 Michigan ..............37-6
5 Oklahoma (1) .......36-5
6 Auburn .................40-6
7 Alabama ..............31-9
8 UCLA ....................35-8
9 La.-Lafayette ........32-5
10 Minnesota ............33-7
11 Florida State .......34-11
12 Georgia ..............35-10
13 Tennessee ..........30-11
14 Baylor ..................29-9
15 Arizona ..............33-10
16 Kentucky ............27-13
17 UCF ......................40-6
18 Washington .......35-11
19 California .............31-9
20 Missouri .............26-10
21 Arizona State......27-15
22 South Alabama ....31-7
23 Texas A&M .........32-12
24 James Madison ....32-6
25 Notre Dame ........32-11

[Deleted]

UF Blanks USF 7-0 - The Gators record advanced to 41-4 and 2-0 for the week having won 2-0 over UK on Monday night. UF has won 9 games in a row:


Score by Innings R H E
-----------------------------------------
USF................. 000 000 0 - 0 3 4
Florida............. 302 200 X - 7 7 0
-----------------------------------------


Florida ip h r er bb so wp bk hbp ibb ab bf fo go np
Aleshia Ocasio W,14-3 4.0 3 0 0 0 5 0 0 0 0 15 15 1 6 39
Delanie Gourley S,2 3.0 0 0 0 2 6 1 0 1 0 9 12 2 1 51


Gainesville, Fla. – The No. 2-ranked University of Florida softball team defeated in-state opponent USF by a 7-0 score on Wednesday at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium. On a night when RBI leader Lauren Haeger was walked three times in four plate appearances, Taylore Fuller and Justine McLean provided all five Gator RBI.

STARS OF THE GAME
•Taylore Fuller: The junior had two hits that produced a total of four Gator runs, marking her eighth multi-hit game of the year.
•Justine McLean: Florida’s sophomore outfielder tied her career high with three hits and registered her fourth RBI of the year.
•Aleshia Ocasio: The first-year right-hander earned her 14th win of the season, lowering her ERA to 1.53 and raising her season strikeout total to 123.

NOTABLES
•The Gators swept the season series from USF, running their record against the Bulls to 9-2 since 2012.
•Florida leads the all-time series 41-13, including a 20-8 margin in Gainesville.
•Fuller posted her sixth multi-RBI game of the season, including her fifth game with four or more RBI.
•The Trenton, Fla., native recorded her eighth game-winning RBI, tying Bailey Castro for the team lead.
•McLean notched her third multi-hit game of the season.
•Stewart’s first-inning single extended her hitting streak to 12 games dating back to the series finale at Alabama on March 23.
•Florida’s junior infielder had two hits on the night to notch her team-best 21st multi-hit game of the season.
•The All-American’s stolen base in the opening frame was the 92nd of her career, extending her school record.
•Haeger drew her 14th career intentional walk in the first, adding to her Gator benchmark.
•Gourley’s save raised her career total to four.

WALTON’S WORDS
On Fuller and McLean hitting well behind Haeger:
“That’s why we’ve relied so heavily on Bailey [Castro]. She’s been hitting behind Lauren a lot this year, or Lauren has been hitting behind Bailey. We’ve put together a tough middle of the lineup where you get RBI hitters. Taylore Fuller is second on our team in RBI – she’s doing a great job. Wherever she’s at [in the lineup], I like our chances to get runners on base. She came through tonight, and it was nice to see her do that.”

On Gourley's work in relief:
“That’s the goal, to try to find a role for Delanie and get her on the right track. She came out and did another good job tonight [after] she did a good job against Kentucky this weekend. She’s out there changing speeds and making it tough on the opponents to get on base. I love it. The last four innings she’s pitched (1 vs. UK and 3 vs. USF), she’s had eight strikeouts. I’ll take that, for sure.”

On the upcoming series at Georgia:
“We’ve got to watch video – we haven’t really watched any video with this long week. We’ll watch some video on [UGA pitcher Chelsea] Wilkinson and their team. We’ll watch them and see what they do. On paper, it looks like it’s going to be an uphill battle for us all weekend.”
— Florida Head Coach Tim Walton

FLORIDA PLAYER QUOTES

Junior UT Taylore Fuller
On her hitting approach tonight:
"Just keep it simple [and] don't overthink everything, because if you do that, things will just get worse. I just have to stay out of my own head, trust myself and trust my coaches."

On getting back on track at the plate after a mini-slump:
"I never lost confidence. I've felt good – it just hasn't happened for me. I've been hitting the ball solid and it just hasn't fallen in. Finally, I just got luck on my side."

Sophomore LHP Delanie Gourley
On her mindset coming out of the bullpen:
"I just went out there with a clear head. I've been working really hard and getting more opportunities as they go. I just went out there and thought, 'I'm just going to do my thing and do what I know how to do.' "

On earning a save with three scoreless innings:
"It was a confidence booster. Even though it was just a few innings, it was good to just be myself again and throw well."

Sophomore OF Justine McLean
On her recent success at the plate:
"I think that lately I've been seeing the ball well, and Coach and I have been working on ball placement. The last few weeks, I had been seeing the ball really well but my swings had been off. I feel like today everything just came together for me."

On Gourley’s work in the circle:
"Delanie's a strikeout pitcher for sure, and I think that all of the things she's been working on in the bullpen [are] really starting to pay off for her. Her confidence is back up, and I think that getting more opportunities to pitch in games will really help us."

UP NEXT
Florida will travel to Athens, Ga., to face No. 11 Georgia in a three-game series. The set begins Friday at 6 p.m. ET. Live streaming will be available through participating television providers only on SEC Network+ via WatchESPN. WGGG (1230-AM) will have the radio broadcast with Corey Brooks (play-by-play) and former Gator All-American Megan Bush on the call. In addition, a live stats link can be found on the schedule page on GatorZone.com.

[Deleted]

Go Gators! Chomp the poodles!:


Gainesville, Fla. – The No. 1 Gator Softball team (41-4, 11-4 SEC) will visit Southeastern Conference rival and No. 11-ranked Georgia (35-11, 11-7 SEC) this weekend for three games at Jack Turner Stadium. The series will mark the teams’ first regular-season matchup since 2013, when the Gators took two of three games in Gainesville. UF’s last visit to Athens came in 2012 - Florida won that series, 2-1.


The Gators will be adding to the 2-0 week; 2-0 over UK and 7-0 over USF.