A regular-season Southeastern Conference championship already accomplished, the top-ranked Florida Gators will use their final regular-season SEC series of the season to get ready for the postseason.
Next up for coach Tim Walton’s Gators is a three-game series with visiting Arkansas at the Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium. The teams play a doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m. Saturday and the series finale is at 1 p.m. Sunday.
Florida (46-3, 23-1 SEC) is riding a 12-game winning streak. Their last six victories have been shutouts, and counting two scoreless innings in their 9-inning, 4-3 victory over Florida State on April 8, the Gators are working on a 44-inning scoreless string, thanks to the pitching efforts of senior Stacey Nelson and sophomore Stephanie Brombacher in the 3-0, 1-0, 12-0 sweep at Louisiana State last weekend.
“Whether we clinched it or we didn’t, we’ve got to take our momentum and move it to the SEC Tournament,” senior first baseman Ali Gardiner said. “A loss this weekend would really hurt our momentum to win the SEC Tournament, so we’re taking every game as a way to get strong for the postseason.”
“It’s huge (to finish the SEC regular season on a strong note),” said senior Ali Gardiner. “Whether we clinched it or we didn’t, we’ve got to take our momentum and move it to the SEC Tournament. A loss this weekend would really hurt our momentum to win the SEC Tournament, so we’re taking every game as a way to get stronger for the postseason.”
Following the series with Arkansas (25-21, 10-11 SEC), the Gators conclude their regular season with a three-game set against visiting Longwood May 2-3. Then comes the SEC Tournament and finally the NCAA tournament, which the Gators hope will last three more games than it did last season. Florida (70-5) lost to Texas A&M in nine innings, 1-0, and the Aggies went on to lose the best-of-three championship series to Arizona State.
Florida’s record against SEC competition over the last two seasons is 54-2.
“I think the accomplishment itself is a huge statement for us becoming a consistent program,” Walton said. “It says a lot about the hard work and determination of our athletes and most importantly it talks about what Stacey Nelson has done for us. As she’s (Improved), we’ve gotten better as a program and now we’re able to support her both offensively and defensively.”
Nelson and the rest of the seniors are also taking the time to make sure the newcomers understand how special the title really is.
“I’ve heard from the upper classmen that we’re so lucky to win it because they never won it when they were younger,” said freshman Alicia Sisco. “It means a lot. Even though I’m a freshman, it means a lot.”
While Florida has already clinched the top seed in the SEC Tournament, Arkansas is still fighting to clinch a spot in the eight-team field. The Razorbacks are currently sitting sixth in the conference standings and will be fighting for their collective playoff lives this weekend.
“Obviously, they still have a lot to play for,” Walton said. “So the expectations for them as a program, they’ve got to win. To be honest with you I think that plays a little bit to our advantage when you’ve got a team coming to Florida and facing Stacey Nelson and they have to win. So we’re just going to play our game and do the same things that we’ve done. We’ve already sewn up our seed and we’ve already sewn up everything we had to do. Now we just play softball.”
The Razorbacks feature an explosive offense (44 home runs this season) and are led by senior catcher Whitney Cloer (.340, 8 HR, 33 RBI) and junior outfielder Jessica Bachkora (.291, 5 HR, 26 RBI). Arkansas junior Miranda Dixon also provides power at the plate with her team-leading nine homers and is also the Razorbacks’ ace.
Dixon (16-9, 3.53 ERA) and fellow right-hander sophomore Kim Jones (7-9, 3.60 ERA) lead a pitching staff that has given up 27 home runs of their own this year. Their affinity for giving up the long ball may haunt them against a Gators team that has hit 62 home runs this year. The Gators are ninth in the NCAA in home runs per game (1.27).
Nelson, who picked up two victories and a save against LSU last weekend, earned SEC Pitcher of the Week honors for the third week. Nelson (27-3) leads the nation with a 0.41 ERA and has 15 shutouts this season. Brombacher (19-0, 0.87 ERA) has a 39-game winning streak in two seasons.
As dominating as the pitching has been, Florida’s defense has stepped up during the streak as well.
“I think defensively this past week we’ve been a lot better,” Walton said. “We’ve been crisp. I don’t think we made an error all weekend. We’ve played a lot better and we’ve got some kids with some confidence. I think the relief of winning this early — we won the conference on the last game of the season — you could tell by the way we played on Sunday that maybe that was burdening a little bit on us.”
If the burden of defending their conference championship has had any effect on the players, they are responding by starting to play their best with the postseason just two weeks away.
“I think we’re starting to peak at the right time,” said Gardner, who had a pair of home runs in the 12-0 victory last Sunday. “We’ve been in a little bit of a lull hitting-wise. Our defense has been solid and our pitching has been obviously phenomenal. But our hitting is starting to come back up to where it was. That last game against LSU gave us a little bit more confidence as a whole and we’re looking to move forward with it.”
That confidence has the Gators realizing that their regular season conference title may not be the only crown they wear this season.
“I see a lot of passion (from this team),” Sisco said. “We just see that we can really do it this year. We have a really good chance to win it all this year.”