Gator Country

Hannah Rogers pitched five shutout innings and Lauren Haeger homered twice to help Florida advance in the Gainesville Regional on Saturday. / Gator Country photo by Mike Capshaw

Lauren Haeger homered twice and Hannah Rogers pitched five shutout innings to lead Florida to a 7-1 win against Central Florida in the loser’s bracket of the Gainesville Regional on Saturday in Pressley Stadium.

The Gators kept their season alive and play a rematch against Florida Gulf Coast, the team that sent them into the loser’s bracket by beating UF 2-1 on Friday, in Saturday’s late game.

It’s a double elimination tournament, so if the Gators win, they’ll have to beat South Florida twice on Sunday as the Bulls are unbeaten in the NCAA Regional thus far.

Lauren Haeger homered twice and Hannah Rogers pitched five shutout innings to lead Florida to a 7-1 win against Central Florida in the loser’s bracket of the Gainesville Regional on Saturday in Pressley Stadium.

The Gators kept their season alive and play a rematch against Florida Gulf Coast, the team that sent them into the loser’s bracket by beating UF 2-1 on Friday, in Saturday’s late game.

It’s a double elimination tournament, so if the Gators win, they’ll have to beat South Florida twice on Sunday as the Bulls are unbeaten in the NCAA Regional thus far.

After Brittany Schutte worked a walk to leadoff the third, Haeger lifted a homer over the left-field fence to give the Gators a 2-0 lead, their first of the regional.

Haeger then hit a towering shot that hit a rooftop of a storage shed over the left field wall to leadoff the fifth inning and increase the lead to 3-0.

In the meantime, Rogers was dealing on the mound. She struck out five and walked one while scattering four hit over five scoreless innings. Haeger came on to pitch the final two innings and worked her way out of a jam in the sixth before retiring the side in order in the seventh to complete the victory.

Brianna Little was 2 for 4 with two RBI while Michelle Moultrie went 1 for 3 with an RBI.

With another game to play Saturday, Florida’s players and coaches were not available for postgame interviews.

Follow the game thread from Saturday’s game against FGCU by clicking here.

About the author

MikeCapshaw

Mike’s 15 years in the business has included more than six years of covering SEC sports and recruiting at a daily newspaper in Arkansas. He has also helped launch a newspaper, magazines, websites and even a sports talk radio show. Mike has won Florida Press Association awards for Best Sports Game Story and Best Sports Feature Story in the past two years as well as a company-wide award at his former newspaper group that includes some 60 publications, for Excellence in Sports Reporting.

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