The No. 2 Florida Gators softball team are fresh off their fourth victory against a ranked team in the past week – Wednesday’s 4-0 victory over sixth-ranked Michigan – so you would think it would give them a huge confidence boost.
By BRAD GOLDBACH
But the Gators aren’t letting their recent success go to their head.
“We’re working hard, so confidence-wise we don’t really look at ranked teams, this and that,” said senior Kim Waleszonia, who is batting .354 with a team-leading four triples on the season. “It’s more or less we try to go out and worry about ourselves. Confidence, with sports, it comes and goes. We try to pull the positives out of things to stay positive.”
Up next for the Gators is a loaded schedule, which includes six games in three days this weekend in the Cox Invitational at Gainesville. On Friday, Florida will play Pacific (5-4) at 4 p.m., followed by South Florida (10-5) at 6:15 p.m. On Saturday, the Gators take on Illinois (10-4) at 4 p.m. and Texas Tech (3-10), whom the Gators already defeated 11-0 earlier this season, at 6:15 p.m. The tournament finishes on Sunday, with Florida playing Illinois at 12:15 p.m. and South Florida at 2:30 p.m.
Playing two games for three consecutive days is a daunting task, but the Gators aren’t too worried about it. Waleszonia is just glad that this time around she isn’t on the other side of the country.
“Well I’m glad we’re at home, so I can sleep in my own bed,” Waleszonia said. “That helps. It’s tough to play that many games in one weekend, but we worked all fall for it and conditioned for it. It’s always tough on the bodies, but by the end of the week, we’ve trained for it so we should be fine.”
Senior Stacey Nelson, 6-2 with a 0.52 ERA this season, shares the same sentiment, saying that the Gators are used to playing a loaded schedule every weekend. So this weekend is just more of the same. Florida played five games in each of the last two weekends in the Lipton Invitational in Gainesville and the Cathedral City Classic in Palm Springs, Calif.
The Gators have fared well against their schedule so far, posting a 13-2 record on the season, so Coach Tim Walton doesn’t anticipate making any big changes going into the weekend.
“The only thing we’ll probably do differently is sit Francesca (Enea) a little bit more,” Walton said. “I think the only game plan I have is that she probably won’t play as much defense as she has been playing just to get her rested. But overall that’s the only thing we’ll do different. We’ll practice and we’ll play the exact same way.”
Enea has been playing this season on a partially torn knee ligament (ACL), an injury she suffered back in September. The junior leads the team in almost all offensive categories, including a .450 batting average, 18 hits, 5 home runs and 25 RBI.
The Cox Invitational is the last stop on the Gators schedule before diving headfirst into SEC competition the following weekend. Coaches usually don’t look ahead, but Walton knows the importance of being ready to go through the gauntlet which SEC foes provide.
“We got a whole week to lead up before we get to South Carolina, so that’s very, very important for us,” Walton said.
Following the tournament, the Gators open their SEC campaign with a three-game weekend series at South Carolina – a doubleheader on Saturday, March 7 and a single game on March 8. Then they return home for a Wednesday, March 11 twinbill against Georgia beginning at 4 p.m.