Recapping the Florida Gators softball weekend

GatorCountry.com brings you this week’s Florida Gators softball review as the Gators won the Aquafina Invitational after going 4-1 over the weekend. In this recap, we will break down the past week’s games, plus name a player of the week from the past week.

The Gators lost its first game of the year to Maryland but rebounded by winning the next two games of the weekend in a big way.

Florida is now 10-1 on the year heading into the tournament in Orlando before they head out west for a big tournament in California.

Results

  • Florida defeated Florida A&M 8-1 – winning pitcher Kelly Barnhill, save Katie Chronister
  • Florida defeated Northwestern State 9-3 – winning pitcher Delanie Gourley
  • Florida lost to Maryland 4-2- losing pitcher Delanie Gourley
  • Florida defeated Northwestern State 10-0- winning pitcher Kelly Barnhill
  • Florida defeated Florida International 5-0- winning pitcher Kelly Barnhill

 

Offensive leaders

Sophomore Kayli Kvistad continued to stay hot at the plate as she had a big home run and went 9-16 at the plate with six home runs. Kvistad also drew four walks and now has an on-base percentage of .683.

Freshman Jaime Hoover continues to surprise people with the bat and is likely to become the Gators five hole hitter. Over the weekend she hit her second grand slam of the year and drew six walks. Hoover collected seven RBI’s over the weekend and now has 12 on the year.

Redshirt freshman Sophia Reynoso has always been talked about for her defense but she’s showing off with the bat so far this year. Over the week she drove in six runs and collected her first triple of her career.

 

Pitching

Tim Walton and Florida Gators softball pitching coach Jennifer Rocha threw all four of the Gators pitchers again this past weekend. Sophomore Kelly Barnhill received SEC pitcher of the week for her performance over the weekend.

Freshman Kelly Barnhill threw 14.2 innings of scoreless ball over the weekend. Barnhill struck out 32 hitters and allowed just seven hits. Barnhill has just a 0.25 ERA on the year now.

Senior Delanie Gourley took her first loss of the year but overall pitched 9.1 innings and allowed just four runs. Gourley picked up two wins while striking out 13 hitters. Gourley has a 1.15 ERA, which is slightly higher than in past years.

Junior Aleshia Ocasio is struggling a little bit this year and over the weekend she gave up 3 runs in six innings pitched. Ocasio now has a 1.62 ERA on the year after pitching 13 innings.

Player of the week

Kelly Barnhill won SEC pitcher of the week so it’s only right that she’s our player of the week. Barnhill is now 4-0 on the year after picking up three wins in the Aquafina Invitational tournament.

This week’s schedule

Florida doesn’t play a mid-week game this week as they travel down to Orlando for the Citrus Classic starting on Friday.

  • Friday vs. Syracuse at 1:15 P.M
  • Friday vs. Fordham at 3:30 P.M
  • Saturday vs. Liberty at 11 A.M.
  • Saturday vs. Elon at 1:15 P.M.
  • Sunday vs. Lehigh at 9:30 A.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.