As the four Florida softball seniors — first baseman Ali Gardiner, catcher Kristina Hilberth, center fielder Kim Waleszonia and pitcher Stacey Nelson — completed the walk of honor down the left-field line inside Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium Sunday, receiving flowers and tearful hugs from teammates and coaches, their list of achievements flowed seemingly endlessly out of the loudspeakers.
The culmination of all those achievements and memories into one day is what makes Senior Day a moment that the players will cherish for the rest of their lives. For some, it even becomes the defining memory of the University of Florida.
“It was awesome,” Hilberth said. “I’m not ever going to forget it.”
Nor will any of them forget the top-ranked Gators’ 3-1 victory over Longwood, the 18th straight for the 52-3 team as it enters the postseason. One streak did end, however. Florida’s string of 75 innings without allowing a run, during which the Gators had 11 straight shutouts, ended in the third inning.
Still, the four seniors (Florida honored three others—Le-Net Franklin, Brooke Johnson and Saturday) conceded beforehand that they would be emotional during the day, but nothing could brace them for the tears that would flow once their time had come.
“I was a lot better than I thought I was going to be,” Nelson said. “I guess preparing for it mentally over these past few weeks didn’t let all the emotions come crashing down at once, but there were still a lot.”
The tears were not relegated solely to those who were being honored on Sunday. For such a close-knit team, it was not surprising to see tears flowing down most of the players’ faces on such an emotional day, whether they were seniors or not.
“For one, I’m a crier,” said sophomore Kelsey Bruder. “I am. I can’t help it. I told them I would try and keep it together, but I feel like I’m one of them. They always say that I am. We go out together all the time. They’re some of my best friends, so it was really tough on me.”
Lost in the downpour of emotions was the regular-season finale against Longwood (23-23) that turned out to be a little more difficult than expected.
The first two innings went by without much action before a fluke play threw a wrench in another Gators streak. After allowing a single to open the third inning, Nelson fielded a routine sacrifice bunt that turned into anything but. The ensuing throw to first went over the head of second baseman Aja Paculba, who was covering the bag, and got stuck under the tarp in right field before finally rolling out, allowing the runner to score all the way from first and advancing the batter to third.
In addition to snapping the scoreless-innings string, the run also was the first time in 12 games that Florida has trailed. But Hilberth proceeded to pick off the runner at third before Nelson struck out the last two batters to end any thoughts of an upset on Senior Day.
“One run is one run, but two runs is a big difference,” Florida coach Tim Walton said. “It’s harder to manufacture two runs. It’s a lot easier to do one run. At that point right there I felt we grabbed the momentum right back from them and I felt we were going to take the lead again and we did.”
After a Corrie Brooks (3-for-4, 1 RBI) double brought home the tying run, Hilberth made another huge play when she singled to give the Gators a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the third. Hilberth’s 3-for-4 performance made the day that much more memorable for the senior.
“Obviously it’s always great to have a few hits on the board and help your team win the game,” Hilberth said. “But I’m glad I have something good to look back on the day instead of saying, ‘Oh no! I went 0-for-4 on my Senior Day!’ So that’s definitely a plus, but the girls being around me and seeing our friendships and stuff like that, that’s going to mean the most.”
Bruder also had a memorable duel with Longwood pitcher Briana Wells, who hit Bruder with a pitch twice in the game after pegging her once yesterday. Bruder was visibly frustrated after getting hit the second time as she stared down the pitcher and yelled “Come on!” while walking to first base.
But Bruder would get her revenge in the bottom of the sixth as she crushed her 14th home run of the year over the right field wall. Bruder pointed to the pitcher, yelling at her once again as she rounded the bases.
“I’m not one to showboat a home run, but I did say ‘Got ya!’” Bruder said. “It felt a lot better than getting hit for a fourth time.”
Nelson (32-3, 0.36 ERA) rubbed a little salt in the wound when Wells stepped up to the plate to lead off the top of the seventh inning. Nelson let the first pitch fly right into Wells’ leg, but wouldn’t admit retaliation after the game. Nelson struck out 11 batters in the four-hitter.
But before Nelson recorded the last out of the game, Walton gave his seniors one last moment in the spotlight, pulling them out of the game to a standing ovation. The bench cleared and all of the seniors hugged their teammates before walking off the field.
“They’re used to it with me now,” Walton said. “I’ve always tried to be one of those coaches, being a player and having a wife who was a former student-athlete. Some of these kids you want to have a memory, and to me the last memory all these seniors will have is their Senior Day. They got a standing ovation from their home crowd, and whatever happens the rest of the season, whether we win the rest of our games or whether we lose, they’re always going to have that moment 10, 20 years from now.”
The defining moment of that exchange was the passing of the torch from Nelson to her successor, sophomore Stephanie Brombacher (20-0, 0.81 ERA) as Nelson handed Brombacher the ball and gave her a pat on the back.
“It’s just so symbolic, me handing Steph the ball because she’s going to be our pitcher next year,” Nelson said. “It’s just so great because I know that she’s going to do it. I know she’s going to come in and do a great job. It’s my time to move on and her time to come in and be the leader.”
But Nelson and the seniors haven’t handed the reins over just yet. Once the emotions of Senior Day have settled down, the Gators will go back to work and look to finish the season with one more celebration.
“We’ve seen this program grow a lot,” Hilberth said. “It’s a day of recognition, a day to look back at all that. They did a really good job putting that together for all of us and it’s good to look back at what we’ve done. But we’re trying to look forward to the next month of play.”
SEC TOURNAMENT: The Gators will begin their postseason journey that they hope will take them to the College World Series in Oklahoma City when they travel to Knoxville, Tenn., to play in the single-elimination Southeastern Conference tournament at the University of Tennessee’s Sherri Parker Lee Softball Stadium.
Florida, the No. 1 seed, will play No. 8 Auburn in Thursday’s third game at 5 p.m. Florida defeated Auburn earlier this season, 3-0 and 7-1, on April 1 in Auburn, Ala. Nelson earned both victories while three Gators hit home runs, led by junior Francesca Enea’s grand slam. Florida had 13 hits in the two games, seven of them for extra bases.
Thursday’s first game pits No. 3 Georgia against No. 6 Kentucky at 11 a.m. Game Two between No. 2 Alabama and No. 7 Arkansas is at 1:30 p.m. Following the Gators-Tigers clash, No. 4 Louisiana State meets No. 5 Tennessee at 7:30 p.m.
In winners of the first two games will play in the first semifinal Friday at 5 p.m., followed by the winner of the Florida-Auburn clash and the winner of the LSU-Tennessee game. The championship game will be played Saturday afternoon at 1:30 p.m.
Florida is a combined 17-1 against the other seven teams in the tournament, the only loss being a 6-4 setback to Alabama on March 29 in Gainesville. That setback ended a 23-game winning streak by Florida, which then went on its current 18-game streak. In those 18 games, Florida outscored the opposition, 112-10, eight of the opposition runs coming in the Alabama series.