Florida Softball - National Champion 14 15

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Florida A&M 0-0
1 Florida 0-0
.
Florida Atlantic 0-0
Hofstra 0-0

--------------------

Ball St. 0-0
16 Notre Dame 0-0
.
Kentucky 0-0
Northwestern 0-0


UF's possible opponents up to the CWS. The selection committee didn't do UF any favors. The combo of 13 RPI Hofstra and 37 RPI Florida Atlantic reminds me of what the baseball selection committee did with UF baseball last year. In this case, UF got the 1 seed in the tourney, but the teams are stronger so it's a 1 seed in name only. Sure, FAMU is a piece of cake, but Hofstra and FAU aren't.

Hofstra (37-12-1) went 2-3 against 15 seed James Madison with JM winning the regular season championship and Hofstra winning 2 of 3 over JM to win the Colonial tourney championship. The pride also beat 16 seed Notre Dame 3-2 at a neutral site. Hofstra played a very good pre-conference schedule that has prepared them for a trip to compete in Gainesville.

FAU is 1-0-1 against Hofstra in Boca winning 2-1 and playing to a 5-5 tie in 11 innings. The owls have a good team.

Oregon RPI possible foes after their opening opponent, 60 RPI BYU, are 36 RPI North Dakota State and 44 RPI Fresno State. The duckies don't possibly face anyone as high in the RPI as Hofstra until the super regional when it would be possible to tangle with 12 RPI James Madison for a spot in the CWS.

Basically, the selection committee gave UF a potential stink bomb with the matchups when looking at what 1 seed UF faces compared to what 2 seed Oregon faces. I hope Tim Walton has the team ready to play at the top of their game this weekend as it won't be easy after facing piece of cake FAMU in game 1.

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Gainesville, Fla. – Freshman pitcher Aleshia Ocasio tied a school record with 17 strikeouts as the No. 1-seeded University of Florida softball team won its NCAA Tournament opener, 6-0, over Florida A&M on Friday night at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium. The right-hander dominated the Rattlers, allowing just one hit and one walk in a complete-game effort while facing one batter over the minimum.


Next up: Hofstra, the potential stink bomb. The Gators will be pitching ace Lauren Haeger so, if the Gators will be aggressive at the plate, they should win. Hofstra is a tough team with 2 quality pitchers.

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The stink bomb was diffused by the Gators:


Hofstra 0 (38-13-1)
Florida 7 (52-6)


Score by Innings R H E
-----------------------------------------
Hofstra............. 000 000 0 - 0 3 0
Florida............. 400 021 X - 7 15 1
-----------------------------------------


Florida ip h r er bb so wp bk hbp ibb ab bf fo go np era
Lauren Haeger W,25-1 7.0 3 0 0 0 8 0 0 0 0 25 25 8 5 89 1.41


By Pat Dooley
Staff writer


Published: Saturday, May 16, 2015 at 3:09 p.m.


What was expected to be a pitcher’s duel instead turned into a one-sided rout as Florida beat Hofstra 7-0 in the NCAA Tournament on Saturday.

Taylore Fuller’s three-run homer powered a four-run UF first inning and Lauren Haeger pitched a three-hit shutout for her 25th win of the season.

The Gators will play Sunday against the surviving team from the rest of the day’s elimination games. UF will play at 1 p.m. and would advance to the Super Regional with a win. Should Florida lose, the two teams will play again for the Gainesville Regional championship.

Florida jumped on Hofstra starter Taylor Pirone in the first when Kirsti Merritt hit a one-out double off the wall and Haeger followed with a bouncing single to make it 1-0. After Nicole DeWitt reached on an infield single, Fuller launched her homer to left-center off one of the brick pillars that supports the scoreboard.

Fuller now has 13 homers this season and her penchant for hitting them with runners on base has elevated her to within striking distance of Haeger’s team-leading 62 RBIs. Fuller now has 54, second on the team.

Pirone kept the Gators off the scoreboard from the second through the fourth innings, but in the fifth Kelsey Stewart atoned for a frustrating day with a two-run single up the middle. Until then, Stewart had been 0-for-3 with a rare error at second base.

Bailey Castro hit a solo homer in the sixth, her team-leading 17th of the season.

Haeger struck out eight including five in a row in one stretch while allowing only three singles. She also had three of Florida’s 15 hits in the game as six Gators has multiple hits.

Florida is now 52-6 while Hofstra drops to 38-13-1 and plays at 6 p.m. against the winner of the Florida A&M-Florida Atlantic elimination game.

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The stink bomb almost turned out to be Florida Atlantic instead of Hofstra. UF won the regional today 1-0 in 8 innings against a game FAU team with an ace pitcher who held UF to 1 run on 4 hits.

Lauren Haeger pitched a 2 hit shutout for the win.

In 3 games, UF outscored the regional competition 14-0 with the FAU game being the closest. Aleshia Ocasio won on Friday and Lauren Haeger won on Saturday and Sunday. Delanie Gourley didn't pitch this weekend. Given the shutouts and the number of pitches, she wasn't needed out of the bullpen.

Score by Innings R H E
------------------------------------------
Florida............. 000 000 01 - 1 4 1
Florida Atlantic.... 000 000 00 - 0 2 1
------------------------------------------

UF's record advanced to 53-6.

Up next: Kentucky (32-24) won the regional at South Bend in 3 games with the final over 16 seed Notre Dame. The 1 seed Gators will host unseeded Kentucky in Gainesville next weekend. The wildcats have an ace pitcher, Kelsey Nunley who lost 2 games, the first and last, in Gainesville during the weekend series from 4/11-4/13. Kelsey Nunley is an ace capable of shutting down UF. Her losses? She lost game 1 1-0 and game 3 2-0. UF beat the UK's lesser pitchers 6-3 in game 2. Bottom line, UK will be a good super regional opponent.

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Super Regional TV Schedule Announced:

Gainesville, Fla. – Following Sunday’s 1-0 win over Florida Atlantic in the regional final, the No. 1-seeded University of Florida softball team will host Southeastern Conference rival Kentucky in an NCAA Tournament Super Regional at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium. Announced late Sunday by ESPN and the NCAA, the schedule and television information for the best-of-three matchup between the Gators and Wildcats is:



Game 1: Saturday, May 23, 1 p.m., ESPNU

Game 2: Sunday, May 24, noon, ESPN

Game 3 (if necessary): Sunday, May 24, 3 p.m., ESPN



Florida swept a three-game series from Kentucky April 11-13. The Gators lead the all-time series, 45-13, including a 23-6 advantage in Gainesville. The Super Regional will mark the teams’ first NCAA Tournament meeting. The winner of the Gainesville Super Regional will match up with the winner of the Knoxville Super Regional between Tennessee and Florida State on May 28, the first day of the Women’s College World Series.

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Florida swept Kentucky 7-0 & 1-0 to advance to the CWS. The Gators will take on the vols in the first game.

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Lauren Haeger - 2015 USA Softball National Collegiate Player of the Year:


OKLAHOMA CITY – University of Florida senior Lauren Haeger is the 2015 USA Softball National Collegiate Player of the Year, announced Tuesday night by the Amateur Softball Association of America (ASA). She is the first Gator to receive the award, which is considered the most prestigious honor in Division I women’s softball. Haeger won the award from a group of three finalists that also included Oregon’s Cheridan Hawkins and Michigan’s Sierra Romero.



A four-time NFCA All-Southeast Region First Team selection, Haeger has played in more games (255) than any other active Division I softball player and is the first player ever to hit 60+ home runs and win 60+ games in a career. The 2013 All-American is the Gators’ all-time leader in home runs (68 – also the Southeastern Conference [SEC] record), RBI (253), total bases (476), walks (169) and intentional walks (17). Haeger additionally ranks among the all-time UF leaders in ERA (eighth, 1.75), wins (fifth, 69) and strikeouts (sixth, 511).



“It was a great feeling,” said Florida Head Coach Tim Walton. “A very proud moment for her and for us as a program. It was special – a one-of-a-kind feeling. It’s something we’ve never felt before, and to be able to have her recognized is a wonderful accomplishment for her.”



The 2015 SEC Pitcher of the Year stands among the national leaders this season in ERA (sixth, 1.24), wins (13th, 28), RBI (27th, 64) and shutouts (fourth, 11). The fourth-year Gator also was selected by the Dallas Charge in the 2015 National Pro Fastpitch Draft.



“I was shocked, honestly,” Haeger said. “I didn’t expect it at all. I think it could’ve gone to any one of us, and it would’ve been a great reward for anybody. It was a really cool feeling – my heart was beating so fast before [the presenter] said the name. I was looking at Bailey [Castro] like ‘feel my pulse, my heart’s pounding!’ It’s so cool and such a relief. I still couldn’t breathe because it was crazy to think of how big of an award that is. It blows my mind.”



Florida’s senior leader has known success on every stage during her softball career. A two-time All-SEC First Team selection, No. 17 started the championship-clinching game against Alabama at the 2014 Women’s College World Series, one of her 21 lifetime wins against ranked opponents. The senior has enjoyed a banner season in 2015, winning her first 24 decisions and setting the Gator all-time records for RBI (3/6 vs. Arizona) and home runs (4/18 at Georgia, Game 1). As a sophomore, Haeger hit 18 home runs and led the SEC with 70 RBI while tallying six wins against ranked foes. The 2012 SEC All-Freshman Team selection quickly established herself as a force on team when she arrived in 2012, striking out 11 batters in her pitching debut (2/11 vs. Maine) and going on to finish among league leaders in RBI (fourth, 52), home runs (sixth, 14) and ERA (seventh, 1.85). Before coming to UF, Haeger set a single-season Arizona high school home run record (21, 2011) and tied the state’s career home run mark (48) while earning All-America honors from ESPN and the NFCA. The right-hander also played for the USA Softball Junior Women’s National Team for two seasons (2010-11), and was the winning pitcher when Team USA defeated Japan in the gold-medal game at the ISF IX Junior Women’s World Championship in Cape Town, South Africa, in 2011.



Haeger is the first Gator and the second Southeastern Conference player to win the award, which was established in 2002. The senior and her teammates will face SEC rival Tennessee in the opening game of the 2015 Women’s College World Series at ASA Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City at noon ET on Thursday.



USA Softball National Collegiate Players of the Year

2002: Stacey Nuveman - UCLA

2003: Cat Osterman - Texas

2004: Jessica Van der Linden - Florida State

2005: Cat Osterman - Texas

2006: Cat Osterman - Texas

2007: Monica Abbott - Tennessee

2008: Angela Tincher - Virginia Tech

2009: Danielle Lawrie - Washington

2010: Danielle Lawrie - Washington

2011: Ashley Hansen - Stanford

2012: Keilani Ricketts - Oklahoma

2013: Keilani Ricketts - Oklahoma

2014: Lacey Waldrop - Florida State

2015: Lauren Haeger - Florida

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The Gators start their opportunity to repeat as softball national champions in the first game of the CWS today against Tennessee:

By Pat Dooley
Staff writer



Published: Wednesday, May 27, 2015 at 7:23 p.m.

Last Modified: Wednesday, May 27, 2015 at 7:23 p.m.


OKLAHOMA CITY -- The last time they were on this field, they were celebrating a national championship. That wasn't lost on Florida coach Tim Walton on Wednesday when his team practiced at ASA Softball Stadium.


Facts

GameDay

What: Women's College World Series
Where: ASA Hall of Fame Stadium, Oklahoma City
Who: Defending champion Florida vs. Tennessee
When: Noon Thursday
TV: ESPN


“I hit a ground ball back to the circle and I did envision Hannah (Rogers) making the play to end the game last year (and clinch the title),” Walton said. “I don't know why. It did bring back memories. A lot of us have special memories in our lives and that will never go away.

“That's what I've been selling to my team this week.”

Florida begins its quest for a second consecutive national title Thursday at noon (ESPN) when the Gators take on SEC rival Tennessee in the Women's College World Series.

The two teams played only once this season, with Tennessee taking a 2-1 win in the SEC Tournament earlier this month.

“We've played Florida a lot and, very seriously, they are a tremendous opponent,” said Tennessee co-coach Ralph Weekly. “Our girls will be ready to play.”

Weekly has taken a page from Florida when it comes to putting up big power numbers. The team has already hit 99 homers this season.

“Ralph said a few years ago that they wanted to hit home runs like the Florida Gators,” Walton said. “I didn't think he'd have enough patience to put up with the strikeouts that come with them but here they are.”

Weekly used two pitchers -- Erin Gabriel and Rainey Gaffin -- to limit Florida to three hits in the SEC Tournament and said he may use as many as four today.

“We're probably the only school in the country that has four pitchers with pretty even stats,” he said. “They're a powerful team and we're going to have to change it up pretty frequently.”

Florida comes into the game after not allowing a run in the Regionals or Super Regionals. National player of the year Lauren Haeger threw four of the shutouts.

Florida's impressive regular-season earned the Gators, now 55-6, the top overall seed in the tournament, but with all of the eight national seeds advancing to Oklahoma City it's expected to be one of the most competitive WCWS ever.

Walton talked Sunday about the pressure being off the Gators now that they have made it to Bricktown and reiterated that Wednesday.

“You want to try to come out here and be as natural as you can be,” he said. “You want to be the No. 1 seed, but there are a lot of bags that comes with that.”

The Gators are playing in the WCWS for the seventh time and third straight. ASA Softball Stadium is like a home away from home for the older players, especially junior Kelsey Stewart. In addition to being here for her third straight WCWS, she practiced at the stadium last summer as a member of Team USA and will return here June 7 to again to practice with the national team.

“I think I do know the field better than most people,” she said. “It's awesome. It's a different environment from Team USA because as soon as you step on the field there is a constant buzz.”

And a familiarity.

“We had trouble motivating ourselves in the fall because we had been to the top,” she said. “But now that we're here, this is another history moment because we want to repeat. You find another gear.

“You're here, OK, it's OKC.”

NOTES: Hager and Stewart were both named All-Americans on Wednesday. Freshman Aleshia Ocasio was named to the third team. Haeger hit .329 with 16 homers and 64 RBIs while compiling a 28-1 record as a pitcher. Stewart hit .448 for the season and has 10 triples and 40 RBI. Ocasio was 17-3 as a pitcher with a 1.99 ERA.

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UF beat UTn 7-2 to take the first game of the CWS. Lauren Haeger picked up her 70th career win and hit her 69th homerun. Lauren is alone in the 60/60 club. With another homerun, she'll be alone and setting the bar high with the 70/70 club.

The only negative is UF missed getting timely hits that could have turned the game into an early end with the 8 run lead rule. UF left the bases loaded twice and stranded runners on 2nd and 3rd in another inning. With timely hits, this would have been a 5 inning game:


1 Florida 7

8 Tennessee 2

TEAM----------1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E
8 Tennessee--0 0 0 2 0 0 0 2 1 4
1 Florida------1 0 2 2 0 2 X 7 7 0

May 28, 2015

WCWS
-
ASA Hall of Fame Stadium, Oklahoma City, Okla.


Thursday May 28, 2015

Florida Downs Tennessee in WCWS Opener, 7-2


GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The University of Florida softball team used one run in the first, two in the third, two in the fourth and two in the seventh to take the 2015 Women’s College World Series opener between the Gators (56-6) and Lady Vols (47-16), 7-2, in front of a large crowd at Oklahoma City’s ASA Hall of Fame Stadium.

After a quick first inning in the circle for the National Player of the Year Lauren Haeger (2-for-2), the senior extended her UF and Southeastern Conference-career home run record to 69 with a solo shot to left field in the bottom of the frame.

Florida’s lead remained at 1-0 until freshman Kayli Kvistad launched her sixth home run of the season into the right-center field seats in the third. The long ball was a two-run shot as Taylore Fuller worked a walk to set the table for the rookie.

However, Tennessee struck back in the top of the fourth with a two-run bomb by sophomore Megan Geer to cut the UF lead to 3-2. Those runs marked the first tally’s any team has scored on the Gators during this postseason.

Undaunted, UF answered with a pair of runs in the bottom of the frame to extend its lead back to three runs (5-2). Two singles, a hit-by-pitch and an errant throw from UT’s catcher on a stolen base attempt fueled the Gators two-out excursion.

The Gators tacked two more insurance runs in the seventh to bring us to our final score of 7-2.

In the circle for the Gators, Haeger (29-1) tossed a complete game, while striking out four and allowing just the two Volunteer runs. The Peoria, Ariz. product saw her consecutive scoreless innings streak snapped at 32.3 frames with that Volunteer long ball. During the streak, Haeger allowed just 10 hits, striking out 25 batters and walking just three.

STARS OF THE GAME
•Lauren Haeger: The right-hander allowed one hit over seven innings as she notched her 29th win of the season. In addition, she hit a solo homer in the bottom of the first inning.
•Kayli Kvistad: launched her sixth home run of the season into the right-center field seats in the third.
•Kelsey Stewart: The junior went 2-for-4 as she recorded her 13th multi-hit game in 25 career NCAA Touney contests.

NOTABLES
•Florida is now 18-11 all-time at the WCWS.
•The Gators are now 65-32 all-time in the NCAA Tournament.
•During Tim Walton’s tenure as head coach, UF is 60-20 in NCAA play and 18-11 at the WCWS.
•The Gators are now 24-2 since April 1; the stretch includes 15 victories over ranked teams and 10 nonconference wins.
•In the bottom of the first inning, Haeger extended her UF and SEC-career home run record to 69. The long ball was her first-career at the WCWS.
•Lauren Haeger now has 70 career wins and 69 career home runs; she is the only player in Division I history to post 60+ in each category.
•Offensively, Haeger was 2-for-22 in her first six WCWS game, but her last three (Alabama series in 2014/today) she is 7-for-10 (w/HR). Overall, Haeger went 2-for-2 and now has three multi-hit games in her career at the WCWS.
•The Peoria, Ariz. native was intentionally walked for 18th time in her career in the bottom of the second inning, extending her own school record.
•Kelsey Stewart extended her current hitting streak to six games in the bottom of second with a single to center. She now has a 17-game NCAA Tournament hit streak dating back to last year.
•The junior has now recorded her 13th multi-hit game in 25 career NCAA Tourney contests.
•Kayli Kvistad’s third inning home run marked the second-straight year a UF freshman has homered in the Gators WCWS opener. Chelsea Herndon accomplished the feat last year with a walk off grand slam against Baylor.

UP NEXT
With the win, Florida will play the winner of the Auburn/LSU game tomorrow at 7 p.m. ET. ESPN will televise the game. Florida Sports Talk will have the radio broadcast with Adam Schick (play-by-play) and former Gator All-American Megan Bush as the announce team. In addition, live stats will be available through Gametracker via the GatorZone.com schedule page.

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It's UF vs. LSU. Any game played between these two teams has the potential to be great.

It's a shame LSU isn't in the opposite brackets to avoid playing UF before the best 2 of 3 for the national championship. I'm pretty sure LSU would have won the bracket against Oregon, Michigan, and UCLA had bama been put in as the 5 seed and LSU had been the 6 seed.

LSU didn't wear the #1 ranking bullseye very well finishing slowly, but that doesn't mean they aren't the best team in the nation.

Of all the teams at the CWS, I think LSU has the best chance of ending UF's quest to repeat as national champion. The tigers have a 4 deep pitching staff, hit with average and power, play good defense, and have an excellent head coach. UF will have to play their best and get better timely hitting if they are to have a chance to win the game.

[Deleted]

A great day for UF softball:

1. Beat LSU 4-0 behind Lauren Haeger's 5 hit complete game win. The Gators move in the winners bracket to Sunday afternoon so winning today should help the pitching staff a lot. Haeger gets a day to rest while neither Aleshia Ocasio nor Delanie Gourley have been needed so far. They will be needed if UF is to go back to back.

2. Lauren Haeger won her 71st game and hit her 70th homerun. She was in a 60/60 club of one and now she is in a 70/70 club of one. Lauren is a 1st baseman on defense, but Tim Walton has only allowed her to hit and pitch this season. I think that has helped to keep Lauren from getting run down due to overwork. What Lauren Haeger has in common with Babe Ruth:

/photo/1

Next Up: UF moved in the winners bracket to the Sunday semifinal where the Gators will face Tennessee, Auburn, or UCLA. With a win on Sunday, the Gators advance to the 2 of 3 national championship series on Monday night. To eliminate UF, the team that advances through the losers bracket must beat UF twice.

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After Carley Hoover, LSU's ace, beat Auburn on Thursday night, she exclaimed with glee that she was excited to get Florida again. The look on her face as the game went on yesterday in UF's 4-0 win looked more troublesome by the inning and downright distraught when she was lifted in the 6th having given up 3 runs and watched Lauren Haeger totally shutdown the LSU offense on 5 hits with 3 of those in the first inning when UF got a double play to end LSU's only offensive threat of the game. Carley Hoover's facial expressions were priceless.

JMO, I think it very likely that it'll turn out to be UF vs. LSU in the championship series starting Monday night. The tigers are the only team in the opposite bracket with a pitching staff capable of eliminating Michigan. If not LSU on Monday, then Michigan.


www.gatorzone.com/story.php?id=30721


Saturday May 30, 2015

Gators Worlds Away From Last Time They Faced Tigers


Chris Harry
By Chris Harry
GatorZone.com Senior Writer


OKLAHOMA CITY -- When LSU came to Gainesville to open the Southeastern Conference season, the Tigers and their big bats mashed and smashed the Florida Gators for 27 runs over a three-game series, winning twice. Coming into that weekend, UF had given up just 28 runs total in starting the year with 27 victories.

So there was LSU again Friday night, in the second round of the Women’s College World Series, rapping three straight singles in the first inning to load the bases with no outs against Gators ace Lauren Haeger. Was anyone on the field for UF thinking back to March 14 when the Tigers tagged the Gators for nine in the first inning?

Nope.

Quite the opposite actually.

“I felt OK,” Haeger said. “I was hitting my spots. A couple balls got through the infield soft. That happens. I felt fine.”

Plus, she had her defense. And her defense, as always, had her.

Clean-up hitter Sahvanna Jacquish lashed a hard grounder to third that Taylore Fuller backhanded and fired to catcher Aubree Munro for a force out. One down, bases still loaded.

No problem.

Gators coach Tim Walton didn’t think twice. He backed up his infield in anticipation of the double play. Shortstop Kathlyn Medina extended her thumb and pinky on her right hand that shouted in Haeger’s direction.

“Get me a ground ball,” Medina said. “I’ll get you two.”

Pretty confident, given the dicey circumstances, right? Pretty clairvoyant, also.

LSU’s Kellsi Kloss, who hit a game-winning grand slam back in that series back at Pressly Stadium, rapped a hard shot to short. Medina fielded it cleanly, tagged Bianka Bell running for third, then fired to first to double up Kloss. End of inning. No damage done.

Haeger, the recently crowned NCAA Player of the Year, then put down 18 of the next 20 Tigers, smashed her second home run in as many days to help win her 30th game and handed LSU just its third shutout in 64 games this season, a 4-0 victory that moved the Gators one win away from their second straight national championship series.

“The greatest day off at the College World Series is a Saturday off,” Walton said. “It’s a great feeling to have to be beaten twice.”

Indeed, the Gators (57-6) will have Saturday to themselves -- to practice, relax, hang with family, go on a team outing, shop, whatever -- while the WCWS bracket is chopped in half. When UF returns to Hall of Fame Stadium on Sunday they’ll do so knowing they have to will lose two games in the same day to be kept from the best-of-three title series.

Florida now has shutouts in six of its seven NCAA games, including against the Tigers (51-12) tonight, who came to OKC armed with seven starters hitting .322 or better, plus two batting over .400. Their worst hitter in the lineup was at .270.

They managed just five singles against Haeger and only two base runners the final six innings. That’s a far cry from the 27 runs and 34 hits collected in that three-game series two months ago; a series in which Haeger did not start any of the games, but did get knocked around pretty good in relief.

“This is a different team we’re facing,” LSU coach Beth Torina said. “Lauren Haeger is in a different place right now.”

More like a different world that she’s inhabiting by herself. Her teammates, though, are feeding off her clubhouse confidence, productivity at the plate and assassin-like mentality in the circle.

The Gators had 10 hits Friday, including a solo homer from freshman Nicole DeWitt, while stranding 11 runners on base. All American Kelsey Stewart opened the game with a triple off the right field wall, as UF proceeded to load the bases -- and fail to score.

At the time, it seemed like an ominous sign, given LSU’s penchant for offensive firepower; it seemed even more foreboding when the Tigers loaded the bases with no outs in their first at bat.

Unless you wore a Florida uniform, that is.

“We knew it was going to be a dogfight,” junior catcher Aubree Munro said. “They're a good team. They play with a lot of energy. We play with a lot of energy. I knew it was going to be kind of tight and we were just going to probably feed off each other a little bit and try to break each other's momentum. I figured it would actually be a more low-scoring game than a high-scoring game.”

For LSU, it was a no-scoring game.

For Florida, winners of seven straight at the WCWS, it was a no-Saturday game.

Like Walton said, they’re the best kind.

[Deleted]

In a battle of who could stink it up the least, Auburn beat UCLA 11-10 in 10 innings. Auburn advances to play UF on Sunday in the semifinal having to win 2 games to eliminate UF. It could happen, but I wouldn't bet on it.

[Deleted]

OKLAHOMA CITY – Freshman Nicole DeWitt sent the University of Florida softball team to the Women’s College World Series Championship Series with a single to left field which scored sophomore Justine McLean in the bottom of the ninth inning, to give the Gators a thrilling extra-inning victory over Auburn, 3-2, on Sunday at ASA Hall of Fame Stadium.

The Orange and Blue (58-6) have now advanced to the WCWS Championship Series four times (2009, 2011, 2014, 2015), winning the program’s first NCAA title and Florida’s 33rd overall national championship in 2014.

Up Next: Michigan who beat LSU 6-3 in the first game of the championship series on Monday night at 8 PM EDT on ESPN 2.

[Deleted]

It's going to be interesting to see who Tim Walton decides to start against Michigan in game 1. I'm going to go out on the limb and predict Aleshia Ocasio:

1. Lauren Haeger started and won 3 complete games in the CWS, but she didn't have her best stuff today and that combined with a ridiculously small strike zone resulted in Lauren having 160 pitches today in the 3-2 win over Auburn.

2. UF beat Michigan 2-1 on February 7 in Tampa and 7-4 on March 5 in Fullerton, Ca. In the first game, Aleshia Ocasio started, pitched a 10 strikeout complete game, and got the win. In the second game, Delanie Gourley started, but she allowed Michigan to take a 4-0 lead before she was lifted and replaced by Ocasio. Ocasio shutdown the wolverines and UF rallied for the 7-4 win. Michigan's Haylie Wagner lost both games and Megan Betsa only pitched 1 inning in game 2.

The oddity is Michigan hasn't faced Lauren Haeger yet. I'm thinking games 2 and 3 if needed will belong to Lauren. I can't see her pitching all 3 games of the championship series on top of what she's already done in the CWS. Besides wearing Lauren out, it's out of character with what UF did from midseason forward relying on Haeger and Ocasio as starters with Gourley coming out of the bullpen for saves. That formula worked extremely well with UF going unbeaten in the month of April. I think Lauren's 160 pitches did her in for the Monday night game.