By Brad Goldbach
Day Two of the Lipton Invitational softball tournament at the University of Florida turned into “The Francesca Enea Show.”
Enea, a junior from Woodland Hills, Calif., launched a grand slam in each of Florida’s 13-0, five-inning victories over Florida Atlantic and South Alabama, including one over the scoreboard in left-center field at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium.
“It felt really good,” Enea understated. “I’m happy I got the runs for my team.”
Enea was 5-for-7 on the day with 10 RBI, five in each game. She now has three home runs on the season and four career grand slams. Her last grand slam came against Georgia Tech in last year’s regionals.
The two victories lifted second-ranked Florida to 7-1 on the season heading into Sunday’s tournament finale against Georgia Tech at 2:30 p.m.
Florida coach Tim Walton, who has seen a lot in his days on the softball diamond, couldn’t help but be very impressed by Enea’s hitting.
“To have (Enea) have 21 at-bats and 19 RBI (this season), I don’t know if I’ve seen anything like that,” Walton said. “I’ve seen kids have good days, but for her, she was making the most out of every one of her plate opportunities and got almost an RBI per at-bat. That’s pretty amazing.”
Enea was 3-for-3 with 5 RBI in the opener and went 2-for-4 with 5 RBI in the second game.
Sophomore Aja Paculba set the table for Enea’s showcase by starting the game against Florida Atlantic (6-3) with a leadoff home run. It was her third home run of the season and first as a leadoff hitter. Walton moved Paculba into the leadoff spot before the tournament and it paid off well Saturday. She went 2-for-2 in the first game with a walk and scored three runs. In the second game, Paculba was 1-for-3 with a walk and scored two runs.
Paculba replaced Kim Waleszonia in the top spot. Walton dropped Waleszonia to the second spot in the order. After going 0-for-4 but scoring a run in the opener, Waleszonia legged out her third triple in two days and the 16th of her career, the most in Florida history. She finished the second game against South Alabama (2-6) 2-for-2 with a run scored.
“I love it, love it, love it, love it,” Walton said of the switch. “We’re dangerous that way, more dangerous than we were before. We’re going to obviously talk about comfort levels and things like that but I looked at the statistic line, I haven’t seen anything change: one’s gone way up and the other one is stealing bases. So I think there’s definitely an opportunity to score a lot of runs that way.”
Florida, which had 13 hits in each game, had its third 8-run inning of the season in the opener against Florida Atlantic, the snowman coming in the second with help from Enea’s first slam of the day. Stacey Nelson improved to 3-1 with a two-hitter which included nine strikeouts.
In the second game, Florida scored six runs in the fourth inning with the help of Enea’s second slam of the day, which went out down the left-field line. Stephanie Brombacher, who threw a no-hitter on Friday, came back with a one-hitter Saturday, a single with one out in the first inning, and had seven strikeouts while improving to 4-0 this season and 24-0 during her Florida career.
Another lineup change that has paid dividends for Walton this weekend has been the insertion of Kristine Priebe into the starting lineup. After hitting her first career home run Friday night, Priebe wasted no time notching her second, a three-run blast over the center field wall in the bottom of the second inning against Florida Atlantic. She went 2-for-2 in the opener with 4 RBI
“(Priebe) has really earned that opportunity right now,” Walton said. “Two home runs in the last two days, she’s done a good job. She’s earned her at-bats. I’m taking nothing away from anybody else. I’m all about rewarding those who need to be rewarded.”
First baseman Ali Gardiner went 3-for-4 with 3 RBI against South Alabama after going 1-for-3 with one RBI in the opener.