Florida Gators softball weekend recap plus player of the week

GatorCountry.com brings you this week’s Florida Gators softball review as the Gators won five games last week. In this recap we will break down the past week’s games, plus name a player of the week from the past week.

Florida had its first home tournament of the year and defeated Illinois State, Florida International, Florida A&M and South Alabama. Florida, in total, has defeated three top-ten ranked teams this year.

Florida outscored its opponents this past weekend by a score of 40-5 and the Gators are now a perfect 22-0 this year.

The Gators have now outscored their opponents 149-13 through 22 games this season.

Results:

  • Florida defeated Illinois State 7-2- winning pitcher Kelly Barnhill
  • Florida defeated FIU 3-1- winning pitcher Delanie Gourley
  • Florida defeated South Alabama 9-0- winning pitcher Aleshia Ocasio
  • Florida defeated FIU 10-0 – winning pitcher Kelly Barnhill
  • Florida defeated Illinois State 11-1- winning pitcher Aleshia Ocasio
  • Florida defeated Florida A&M 4-1 – winning pitcher Delanie Gourley

 

Offensive leaders:

Sophomore Kayli Kvistad had a monster week as she scored six runs, had seven RBI’s and two home runs. Kvistad is now hitting. 432 with 19 RBIs this year and moved up to the five hole in Sunday’s batting order.

Senior Kirsti Merritt had eight hits this weekend that resulted in four RBI’s. Merritt also had six walks from the two hole in the batting order. The center fielder is now hitting .397 on the year.

Sophomore Janell Wheaton continued her hot streak, as this week she hit another home run and had seven RBIs this week. Wheaton also had six hits and drew eight walks from the cleanup spot. Wheaton leads the team with 26 RBI’s and five home runs.

 

Pitching:

Tim Walton and Florida Gators softball pitching coach Jennifer Rocha threw all three of the Gators pitchers again this past weekend. Junior Delanie Gourley picked up two more wins this week including a dominating performance against Florida A&M on Sunday. Gourley set a career high with 13 strikeouts against A&M and for the weekend had 26 strikeouts in 13.1 innings pitched. Gourley is 8-0 on the season now.

Sophomore Aleshia Ocasio picked up two wins and dominated Illinois State on Sunday where she struck out four batters. Ocasio pitched 15.1 innings over the weekend and allowed just one run during her time in the circle. Ocasio is 7-0 this year.

Freshman Kelly Barnhill had a good weekend in the circle as she appeared in three games and won of those games. Barnhill also picked up her first career save on Sunday against Florida A&M. Barnhill struck out 19 batters in 10.1 pitched over the weekend. Barnhill is 7-0 this year.

 

Player of the week:

Sophomore Kayli Kvistad really dominated for most of the weekend including a 4-4 game at the plate on Sunday. Kvistad on the week had two home runs and seven RBI’s during the six game home stand.

 

This week’s schedule:

Florida has a mid week series this week before starting SEC play on Saturday on the road in Auburn, Alabama.

  • Wednesday against South Dakota starting at 4:00 P.M
  • Wednesday against South Dakota starting at 6:00 P.M
  • Saturday against Auburn starting at 8:30 P.M
  • Sunday against Auburn starting at 5:00 P.M
  • Monday against Auburn starting at 7:00 P.M
Andrew Spivey
Andrew always knew he wanted to be involved with sports in some capacity. He began by coaching high school football for six years before deciding to pursue a career in journalism. While coaching, he was a part of two state semifinal teams in the state of Alabama. Given his past coaching experience, he figured covering recruiting would be a perfect fit. He began his career as an intern for Rivals.com, covering University of Florida football recruiting. After interning with Rivals for six months, he joined the Gator Country family as a recruiting analyst. Andrew enjoys spending his free time on the golf course and watching his beloved Atlanta Braves. Follow him on Twitter at @AndrewSpiveyGC.