The No. 1 ranked Florida Gators softball team will bring its 16-0 record into a home tournament this weekend that starts on Thursday night.
Florida has only played two games at home, but will host the Aquafina Invitational this weekend. Florida will play six games in total this weekend.
Joining Florida in Gainesville will be Illinois State, Florida International, South Alabama and Florida A&M.
Florida is one of just three teams that are undefeated heading into the fourth weekend of the season.
Here’s the schedule for this weekend’s game.
- #1 Florida vs. Illinois State on Thursday at 6:00 P.M
- #1 Florida vs. FIU on Friday at 6:00 P.M
- #1 Florida vs. South Alabama on Saturday at 12:00 P.M
- #1 Florida vs. FIU on Saturday at 2:15 P.M
- #1 Florida vs. Illinois State on Sunday at 11:15 A.M
- #1 Florida vs. Florida A&M on Sunday at 1:30 P.M
That’s a look at this weekend’s games, but let’s dig a little deeper into this weekend’s opponents in our scouting report. Here’s a quick scouting report on the Florida Gators softball team as well.
Scouting the Florida Gators:
The Gators have outscored its opponents 109-8 during the 16-0 to start the season. Florida enters the tournament with a .987 fielding percentage which is third best in the country.
Amanda Lorenz comes in with the Gators best batting average at .500 and has scored 21 runs from the three-hole this year. Janell Wheaton is the Gators best power hitter this year with four home runs and 19 RBI’s in the cleanup spot. Florida as a team is hitting .363 with an on base percentage of .495.
In the circle Delanie Gourley leads the team with a 6-0 record and a 0.24 ERA but is followed closely by Aleshia Ocasio who is 5-0. Kelly Barnhill is also 5-0 and the Gators staff has a 0.52 ERA as a team.
Scouting the Illinois State Redbirds:
Illinois State is off to a bad 3-11 start, but did beat a good Virginia Tech team earlier this year.
Jordan de los Reyes leads the Redbirds with a .348 batting average with four home runs this year. De los Reyes has driven in ten runs and has an on-base percentage of .388. As a team Illinois State is hitting .232 with 13 home runs and on base percentage of .331.
In the circle Sarah Finck is the Redbirds ace pitcher but she is just 3-6 on the year. Finck has an ERA of 4.17 and has an opposing batting average of .301 against her. Illinois State as a team has an ERA of 6.43 among four pitchers who have pitched this season.
Florida holds a 5-2 all-time record against Illinois State heading into the weekend series.
Scouting the FIU Panthers:
The Panthers enter the tournament with an 11-5 record and all 16 games have been played at home this year.
Stephanie Texeira leads FIU with a .538 batting average and has hit seven long balls this year. Texeira has also driven 23 runs and has hit five doubles with three stolen bases. FIU as a team has hit 13 home runs and has a team batting average of .363 this season.
Abby Summers is 5-1 this year in the circle and has an ERA of 0.84 through seven games pitched this year. Summers has three complete games and FIU as a team has five. The Panthers have a team ERA of 2.05 among their five pitchers that have pitched this year.
Florida leads the all-time series against the Panthers by a 11-3 record.
Scouting the South Alabama Jaguars:
The Jaguars enter the tournament with a 8-6 record and are now just outside of the top 25 rankings. South Alabama defeated UAB earlier this year.
Emily Messer leads the Jaguars with a .529 batting average this year including an on-base percentage of .554. Savanna Mayo leads the team with two home runs this year but the Jaguars as a team only has four.
South Alabama has a team ERA of 2.41 and Destin Vicknair leads the team with a 4-1 record. Vicknair has an ERA of 2.33 this year including four complete games.
The Jaguars are hitting just .288 as a team including 18 doubles, but has struck out 70 times this year.
Florida holds a 1-0 all-time record against the Jaguars.
Scouting the Florida A&M Rattlers:
The Rattlers are 5-6 heading into the weekend, but are coming off of two wins against Connecticut last weekend.
Florida A&M is led at the plate by Kenya Pereira who is hitting .400 with two home runs and four RBI’s this year.
The Rattlers are led in the circle by Amber Fulwood who is 3-2 this year with a 3.97 ERA in 37 innings pitched.
Florida leads the all-time series with a 12-0 record against Florida A&M.
Stay tuned to GatorCountry.com all weekend for updates on the Gators softball team.