Gators softball keeps season alive

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.

mikecapshaw
Mike Capshaw brings a wealth of experience to the Gator Country team. He’s been overseeing all editorial aspects of GatorCountry.com and Gator Country magazine by managing our team of staffers, interns and freelancers. He is now moving into a bigger role as a reporter by covering the football and basketball beats as well as providing coverage of all sports on campus. 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. Because Mike puts family ahead of his career, he left the place where he was established when his wife received an opportunity to further her career at UF. He took a leap of faith that he could find a job in the Gainesville area and worked for a year at a newspaper group before joining the Gator Country family in November, 2011. 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. You can follow Mike on Twitter at @MikeCapshawGC.