Santa Fe College and Tallahassee Community College could not weather Florida’s storm of shutdown pitching, balanced hitting and bounty of speed during their weekend fall scrimmages.
Florida head coach Tim Walton said his team has to maintain offensive balance with table-setters Sami Fagan and Michelle Moultrie and power hitters like Cheyenne Coyle and Brittany Schutte.
“I think it is going to be really important to make sure we maintain the speed and the balance,” Walton said. “Don’t become too speed oriented where we are just hitting a lot of infield hits. Don’t become too power oriented where we are popping up, hitting the home runs and striking out a lot.”
The Gators defeated Santa Fe Friday 11-0 and 7-0. Sunday’s contests against TCC were the same story for Florida. The Gators defeated TCC 11-0 and 10-0.
Florida matched its success at the plate with a dominant pitching performance. Three pitchers combined to throw 28 scoreless innings and only allowed six hits. Sophomore Hannah Rogers anchored the staff with 9.2 innings of shutout ball.
This weekend marked the emergence of freshmen Alyssa Bache and Lauren Haeger in the circle. Both pitchers could see significant time next season to keep Rogers fresh. Walton wants to see the young pitchers step up in regular season competition.
“I told my team this, ‘How do I get confidence in you? It’s you giving me confidence in you.’ They’ve got to go out and they’ve got to earn not only the respect of me to put them in the spot of some crucial game situations, but they still have to earn the respect of opponents and go out and get it done,” Walton said. “We didn’t have confidence in Stacey Nelson. We didn’t have confidence in Hannah or Stephanie (Brombacher) until they went out and proved themselves.”
Sami Fagan was one freshman that stepped up at the plate. The younger sister of Florida infielder Kasey went 11-for-19 with three runs batted in. The leadership of the senior Moultrie, a USA national team member, will help Sami be a force at the top of the order, Walton said.
The combination of Sami Fagan and Moultrie not only helped the Florida offense, it better prepared the Gators’ defense. For the starting shortstop Coyle, the practice fielding against speedsters provided invaluable experience.
“The two slappers, they do a really great job,” Coyle said. “It is nice in practice when they can challenge us as well (on defense), because having them right after another is hard to get them out.”
Speed came from the unlikeliest of places against TCC in the second game. With Coyle up and Schutte at third base in the bottom of the fourth, Walton called for a squeeze. Coyle’s bunt continued to roll as Schutte raced past home for the eighth run of the game. Coyle, who finished last year with 17 home runs and 60 RBIs, must be able to perform any task, even an unlikely squeeze play, Walton said.
“The main thing is trying to find out exactly what our athletes are capable of in season now so when we get in the regular season, we know exactly what the expectations are,” Walton said. “To me that is what it is all about. All 15 hitters better be capable of doing everything we ask of them.”
The Gators will travel to Daytona on Wednesday to face Daytona State College at 6 p.m., then face a National Pro Fastpitch team as part of the NPF Back to School Tour. The NPF Back To School Tour is sponsored in part by USSSA with additional support from Major League Baseball.
Players participating on the 2011 NPF Back to School Tour include Olympic medalists Andrea Duran, Kelly Kretschman, Caitlin Lowe; former Canadian Olympic Team member Caitlin Lever; former Canadian Olympic Team members and NCAA Champions Danielle Lawrie and Jenn Salling; 2010 NPF Pitcher of the Year, Lisa Norris; 2011 All NPF Team Members Ashley Charters, Bianca Mejia, Megan Wiggins, Brittany McKinney, and Sam Marder; and NPF Rookie of the Year, Alisa Goler.
Former Florida players Francesca Enea and Kelsey Bruder played for the USSSA Pride during the summer as part of the NPF league, coached by Tim Walton.