Brooks’ bat secures Gator sweep

For the past week, when the sixth-ranked Florida Gators have needed a huge hit, they have turned to senior Corrie Brooks. On Saturday, Brooks delivered perhaps the biggest hit of the season if not her career — a walk-off home run to left field to give the Gators a come-from behind 2-1 victory in the second game of a doubleheader sweep of No. 12 Louisiana State before a record crowd of 2,433 at the Katie Seashole Pressly Softball Stadium.

Coach Tim Walton’s Gators (26-4, 8-2 SEC) earlier scored a 4-1 victory over the Tigers (29-6, 8-2) to end LSU’s 24-game winning streak and move into a first-place tie in the overall conference standings. The teams will face off for the series finale Sunday at noon.

About a week ago, Brooks was battling through an 0-19 hitless streak. This past week has been a complete turnaround, as the torrid-hot Brooks has gone from not being able to put anything to play to almost not being able to keep anything inside the ballpark. The home run was Brooks’ fourth in the past four games. She knocked out two against Alabama on Sunday, including the go-ahead bomb in the top of the seventh inning of the series finale. Brooks also launched a dinger in the sixth inning Wednesday against UCF.

Needless to say, Brooks has been seeing the ball pretty well of late.

“Today I really felt like I was seeing the pitcher really good,” Brooks said. “I was ahead of her the first two times up, so the last time I told myself, ‘Don’t try to pull the ball. Think opposite field.’ It came up that I got a good pitch to hit.”

Brooks’ home run came on a 1-1 pitch with one out and capped a comeback victory that saw the Gators manage just one hit through the first five innings—a single by Aja Paculba to lead off the fourth inning.

As the Gators have shown constantly over the past few years, no matter how bad they are struggling in a contest, more often than not they will solve the opposing pitcher after a few times through the lineup.

“I just think we started to make our adjustments,” Brooks said. “That was the third time we had seen her (LSU pitcher Cody Trahan). The second time around we made a little bit of an adjustment, but the third time around we made an adjustment thinking, ‘Don’t try to pull the ball’ because she had a good spin. She wasn’t as fast as the other girl (first-game starter Kirsten Shortridge). We made our adjustments there in that last inning.”

Ironically, it took the Gators’ own pitcher to put the first dent on Trahan, who had only given up four runs all season prior to Saturday. Walton decided to pinch-hit freshman Ensley Gammel for freshman Samantha Holle to lead off the sixth inning.

“With two strikes, it’s just, ‘Get it in play,’” Walton said. “Before that, we talked about helping yourself. In that situation—it’s kind of a unique situation in softball—she starts as the pitcher, but the designated hitter is Samantha Holle, so she can come in and hit for herself. We’re not scoring any runs. We’re down 1-0. In that situation, I wanna give her the opportunity to help herself. I wouldn’t want to go away from this ballgame losing 1-0, knowing that I could swing the bat and have a chance. Obviously she came through for us.”

Gammel delivered a hard-hit grounder that bounced off the shortstop’s glove and into the outfield for a single, her second hit of the season. After a Michelle Moultrie single, sandwiched by two outs, junior Kelsey Bruder came up and sent Gammel home with a liner through the middle. Upon sliding home safely, Gammel jumped up and pumped her first while pointing to Bruder in congratulation.

“When Kelsey got that base hit, I was really pumped for her,” Gammel said. “I was glad she got it, and I was really pumped we got to tie it up and, of course, have a chance (to win).”

Gammel (6-0, 2.20 ERA) capped a dominating performance in the circle where she surrendered two hits, one walk and an unearned run. If there were any questions as to how the freshman would perform in a tight SEC contest, she answered many of them with her showing—both on the mound and at the plate.

“As pitchers, you live for these games,” Gammel said. “This is what you’re meant for. I live for these games, so they’re fun. It’s not much fun if it’s a blowout.”

Gammel’s gem followed one by junior Stephanie Brombacher in the opener. Brombacher (19-4, 2.16 ERA) gave up five hits, three walks and one run off a sixth-inning home run by LSU leftfielder Ashley Langoni, a shot that came after Langoni was given second life on an illegal pitch call.

Coming into the series, LSU was leading the nation in ERA, so all eyes were on the battle between Tiger arms and Gator bats. But after two games went in the books, most of the eyes are looking at the arms on Florida’s side, even if Walton wouldn’t play up the performance of his two pitchers.

“I don’t know that we outshone them,” Walton said. “You’ve gotta give our offense a little bit of credit. We swing the bat very well, and I think they did a good job pitching. Really through, both games they did a good job pitching.”

LSU was able to shut down Florida’s bats for nine straight innings on Saturday, but it still wasn’t enough. Florida tallied a pair of runs in each of the first two innings of game one, with Bruder hitting an RBI single and Megan Bush hitting a sacrifice fly in the first and Francesca Enea breaking the game open with a two-run double an inning later.

As the Tigers found out the hard way, no matter how long you keep the Gators down, if there is even a gasp of air left at the end, the Gators have proven they will gladly seize that opportunity.

“The way this team’s been for the last three years now,” Walton said, “if you give us a chance, if you give us a last at-bat to win a ball game, we’ve got a pretty good chance of winning, and obviously Corrie did that for us today.”

Gator Bytes: Tiffany DeFelice was seen wearing a cast before the game on her right hand, an injury she suffered in the ninth inning against UCF. Walton said DeFelice is expected to miss 3-4 weeks with a broken hand. … Replacing DeFelice, freshman Brittany Schutte gunned down a runner in the top of the seventh inning of game two to kill any rally the Tigers hoped to make. … Moultrie recorded her third outfield assist of the year in the top of the fourth in game one, gunning down a runner at second for a double play. … Bush played shortstop for the sixth time in seven games, with freshman Holle playing first for the third straight game (she entered after DeFelice injured her hand on Wednesday). … Walton said he will go game-by-game to determine who plays in the lineup and where, saying he will “flip a coin.” He said if Holle (1-for-4 with a walk on the day) continues to hit, then she will see playing time. … Walton mentioned Gammel, freshman Kelsey Horton (0-for-1, pinch-hitting for Brittany Walker, who played designated player with Bush at shortstop) and Bush as possibilities at first base going forward.

SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE

Conference Overall

EASTERN DIVISION W-L Pct. W-L Pct.


Florida 8-2 .800 26-4 .867

Tennessee 10-3 .769 29-7 .806

Georgia 6-6 .500 26-8 .765

Kentucky 7-9 .438 22-15.595

South Carolina 0-16 .000 10-26.278

WESTERN DIVISION W-L Pct. W-L Pct.

Louisiana State 8-2 .800 29-6 .829

Arkansas 8-3 .727 24-13.649

Alabama 10-4 .714 27-9 .750

Mississippi 5-7 .417 20-15 .571

Auburn 5-9 .357 20-15 .571

Mississippi State 3-9 .250 21-18 .538

RESULTS

SATURDAY / April 3


Florida 4-2, Louisiana State 1-1

Tennessee 3-8, South Carolina 1-0

Alabama 9-10, Auburn 1-2

Georgia 4, Arkansas 0

Mississippi State 1, Kentucky 0

FRIDAY / April 2

Arkansas 3-10, Georgia 2-5

Kentucky 5-2, Mississippi State 4-0

Tennessee 9, South Carolina 1

Alabama 5, Auburn 1

SCHEDULE

SUNDAY / April 4


Louisiana State at Florida, 12 p.m.

MONDAY / April 5

Georgia Southern at Georgia, 5 p.m.

TUESDAY / April 6

USC Upstate at South Carolina, 6 p.m.

Southern Mississippi vs. Mississippi at Ridgeland, Miss., 7 p.m.

WEDNESDAY / April 7

Kentucky at Louisville, 7 p.m.

Louisiana State at Alabama (2), 6 p.m.

Samford at Auburn, 7 p.m.

Georgia at Georgia Tech, 7 p.m.

Mississippi Valley State vs. Mississippi State at Ridgeland, Miss., 7:30 p.m.

SATURDAY, April 10

South Carolina at Kentucky (2), 1 p.m.

Florida at Arkansas (2), 2 p.m.

Tennessee at Auburn (2), 2 p.m.

Georgia at Mississippi (2), 2 p.m.

Mississippi State at Louisiana State (2), 2 p.m.

Northwestern at Alabama, 2 p.m.

SUNDAY, April 11

Florida at Arkansas, 2 p.m.

Tennessee at Auburn, 2 p.m.

Georgia at Mississippi, 2 p.m.

South Carolina at Kentucky, 2 p.m.

Mississippi State at Louisiana State, 2 p.m.

Northwestern at Alabama, 2 p.m.

POLLS

As of March 30


ESPN.com/USA SOFTBALL DIVISION I

1.Washington (28-2); 2. Arizona (28-3); 3. Michigan (24-5); 4. Missouri (23-4); 5. UCLA (26-4); 6. Alabama (24-9); 7. Georgia Tech (29-5); 8. Georgia (24-6); 9. Florida (23-4); 10. Arizona State (31-4); 11. Stanford (25-5); 12. Louisiana State (28-4); 13. Oklahoma (27-9); 14. California (28-6); 15. Oklahoma State (29-7); 16. Florida State (31-6); 17. Texas (26-8); 18. Texas A&M (29-7); 19. Tennessee (25-7); 20. Illinois (23-4); 21. Oregon (24-5); 22. North Carolina (24-10); 23. Ohio State (18-10); 24. Baylor (19-10); 25. Brigham Young (20-7).

USA TODAY/NATIONAL FASTPITCH COACHES ASSOCIATION

1. Washington (28-2); 2. Michigan (24-5); 3. Arizona (28-3); 4. Missouri (23-4); 5. UCLA (26-4); 6. Florida (23-4); 7. Arizona State (31-4); 8. Alabama (24-9); 9. Stanford (25-4); 10. Georgia Tech (29-5); 11. Georgia (24-6); 12. Louisiana State (28-4); 13. Oklahoma (27-8); 14. California (28-6); 15. Oklahoma State (29-7); 16. Tennessee (21-7); 17. Texas (26-8); 18. Illinois (23-4); 19. Florida State (31-6); 20. Texas A&M (29-7); 21. Ohio State (18-10); 22. North Carolina (24-10); 23. Massachusetts (17-7); 24. Notre Dame (24-5); 25. Louisville (21-12).