How about the “Mean Blue Machine?” If that doesn’t work, will the “Smash Sisters” do?
The No. 1 Florida Gators softball team needs a catchy nickname.
It has to be one to capture the dominance of this team, which is 34-3 after taking two of three softball games from No. 5 Alabama at the Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium, where fans kept coming and coming and coming Saturday and Sunday.
It doesn’t matter that the third loss to the ledger was added Sunday by the Crimson Tide, which ended Florida’s 23-game winning streak (after suffering 9-1 and 10-1 losses the previous day) with a 6-4 victory that was only secured when Michelle Moultrie’s bid for a game-winning, 3-run home run was caught at the right-field fence.
All-America senior right-hander Stacey Nelson finally looked human for a day in giving up four runs (only one earned) on five hits. Not only did she struggle on the mound trying to find the strike zone but her teammates struggled behind her.
Even despite uncharacteristic errors and troubles at the plate a day after scoring 19 runs, Florida still managed to rally in the seventh inning behind the bat of Francesca Enea. The sweetest swing in Gainesville ripped a three-run shot that went over the scoreboard in left center which cut a five-run deficit to two.
Alabama fans, who had witnessed a late-inning Florida outburst the day before, understandably became a little nervous. That feeling in the pit of their stomachs became worse when Moultrie hit the long fly ball that outfielder Jazlyn Lunceford finally cradled in her mitt to avoid a Florida celebration and begin an Alabama one.
Naturally, you expect there to be disappointment after such a loss. You expect anger, frustration and animosity, right? Well, think again.
“One more year, you’ll get these guns (referring to her arms), and you’ll start hitting those out Michelle!” Enea told her teammate.
Relaxed, goofy, silly. These are words you use to describe a tight bunch which has rolled over college softball the past season and a half with a 104-8 record. That’s the mood of the Gators on a normal day when they are forcing a Top 10 team into a mercy-rule situation, and that’s how the Gators acted heading into the bottom of the seventh against Alabama.
“The energy in the dugout was just phenomenal,” Nelson said. “You would have thought we were playing in the second inning. It wasn’t like everybody felt like there was pressure. Everyone was having fun and cheering.”
While the disappointment was still there, you can tell that this bunch is looking forward to June. This is a group with bigger goals in mind than a minor setback against Alabama in March.
“We’re going to bounce back,” former walk-on Kristina Hilberth said. “We’ve got to take care of Auburn in the middle of the week, so we’re going to get better and start a new winning streak on Wednesday.”
The loss Sunday was so surprising, so surreal, that it almost makes secondary Saturday’s sweep. In the opener, Florida completely crushed previously unbeaten Alabama ace Kelsi Dunne with nine earned runs and 12 hits to back Nelson. In the second game, sophomore Stephanie Brombacher moved to 16-0 with the help of an 8-run third inning.
The announced attendance was 2,423, which broke the existing record from the stadium’s opening day in 1997. The Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium has permanent seats for 1,200. But many observers on hand Saturday believe some 3,000 fans probably showed up after the official attendance was taken in the fifth inning of the opening game, and that crowd enjoyed every moment.
“It was just so much fun to see that much Orange and Blue in an environment like this for a regular-season matchup,” Walton said. And who could argue with him? Walton has fans caring about softball at Florida, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see the place expanded if the success continues.
Junior Corrie Brooks echoed the sentiments of her coach on Saturday. “Everybody gets fired up. The crowd, that helps us a lot, having the crowd. It gave us a lot of momentum.”
Momentum? Not even a little bump in the road against Alabama can take that away. Will it be enough to carry the Gators to the College World Series in Oklahoma City? Even if they are giggling, joking and dancing their way all the way to the national championship, the epicenter of college softball now resides in a most unlikely place – Gainesville, Fla.