KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – And now the fun can finally begin for the Florida Gators softball team.
Not that the last 58 games haven’t been enjoyable enough for coach Tim Walton’s No. 1 Gators, whose 55th victory of the season was an 8-5 triumph over No. 3 Alabama that avenged their last loss of the regular season and added a second-straight SEC Tournament title to the SEC regular-season championship they won with a 26-1 record.
Now, the Gators will try to finish off what they couldn’t in 2008 – get to the College World Series in Oklahoma City for the second straight year and win three more games than they did last season. A victory instead of a 1-0, nine-inning loss to Texas A&M would have put the Gators into the best-of-three championship series with Arizona State, which eventually swept the Aggies for the title.
Getting back to Oklahoma City has been the focus all year for Florida, which is now within five victories of that goal – three in a four-team, double-elimination NCAA Regional the Gators surely will host as the top-seeded team in the latest NCAA RPI rankings. Walton and his club find out their opponents Sunday evening. Then if the Gators win those three regional games, they should again host a best-of-three super regional.
Five more victories—sounds so simple for a club which has now won 21 straight since its shocking 6-4 setback to the 47-9 Crimson Tide, whose victory on March 29 ended a 23-game winning streak. That’s 44 victories in the last 45 games for a team that finished 70-5 a season ago.
“To beat Alabama three times in one season is a very difficult task,” Walton said. “It’s something that we’re very proud of, beating a team like Alabama. The benchmark of this conference has been if you want to be a College World Series team, you’ve got to beat someone like Alabama. We’re proud of where we are at right now.”
Once again, the closeness that Walton has demanded and the Gators have developed this season was evident as Florida dug itself out of a 2-0 first-inning deficit that resulted from a rare throwing error by senior catcher Kristina Hilberth, the SEC Tournament Most Valuable Player, and rare wildness by senior Stacey Nelson, the SEC’s Pitcher of the Year.
“I couldn’t be happier for a person,” Walton said of the surprising MVP honor for Hilbert, who was 3-of-10 in three tournament victories but given the honor because of her handling of Nelson through the three victories and leading the team back from 3-0 and 2-0 first-inning deficits against Tennessee and Alabama, respectively.
“Without Kristina Hilberth, this team doesn’t function,” Walton continued. “She’s a leader. I’ve challenged her all year to be a leader. She leads, she blocks, she throws, she hits. Her batting average (this season) is 100 points better than her career average. That’s a reward right there for a kid who’s fought through the most adversity you can face as an athlete—not being considered very good to being name the SEC Tournament MVP your senior season on the No. 1 team in the country.”
Her batterymate and fellow senior, Nelson, couldn’t have been happier for Hilberth.
“Kristina has been long overdue to receive a big award like this,” she said.
Said Hilberth: “I didn’t expect it at all. It’s really an honor to be chosen out of all these great athletes on our team and all seven other teams (in the tournament). Shocking would be the word I would use.”
Without the benefit of a hit off losing pitcher Kelsi Dunne (24-3), the Gators cut that Alabama lead in half before sophomore shortstop Megan Bush battled Dunne in a 16-pitch at-bat which ended with her grand-slam blast over the left-field fence that gave Nelson (35-3) room to breathe.
“I’m just trying to stay alive and get a pitch to hit,” Bush said. “Dunne’s a good pitcher, so I was just trying to find a pitch (to hit) in between all of the other ones. She pitched me inside the whole time so I was just trying to battle and foul them off. Then I got one that I could drive.”
Florida managed just six hits in the game against Dunne, who walked five and hit five Gators while throwing 157 pitches (95 strikes) in 5.1 innings. She allowed eight runs (seven earned) and struck out five.
Nelson, meanwhile, surrendered five runs (three earned) on five hits with five walks and two hit batters and two wild pitches among her 117 pitches (70 strikes). One of the hits was the ninth home run of the season by SEC Player of the Year Charlotte Morgan, a solo shot that was the first home run surrendered by Nelson this season. It was one of Morgan’s two hits.
“Playing in Division I college softball, home runs are kind of inevitable, especially to hitters like Charlotte Morgan,” Nelson said. “She can drive the ball well. I wasn’t really thinking about it, but it happens.”
Nelson did have eight strikeouts and they seemed to come at just the right time. With the bases loaded in the top of the first, Nelson hit a batter and uncorked a wild pitch to give Alabama its 2-0 lead with one out but then struck out Amanda Locke and Whitney Larsen to avert any further damage. In the seventh inning after Alabama had scored another two runs to cut Florida’s lead to 8-5, Nelson struck out Larsen to end the game.
Kelsey Bruder led the Florida attack with two hits (one a double) in three at-bats with three RBI. Bush’s grand-slam homer came in a 1-for-3 performance and Hilberth, Michelle Moulter and Aja Paculba had the other hits. Paculba’s hit was a fourth-inning, leadoff triple that was followed by a successful suicide squeeze by Tiffany DeFelice. Bruder later doubled home pinch-runner Brooke Johnson to give Florida a 7-2 lead. After Morgan’s home run, Bruder knocked out Dunne with a run-scoring single in the bottom of the sixth for an 8-3 lead.
Led by tournament MVP Hilberth, the Gators placed four players on the 11-player SEC all-tournament team. Joining the Gators’ senior catcher on the team are second baseman Paculba, right fielder Bruder and third baseman Corrie Brooks. Alabama had three representatives—Morgan, second baseman Lauren Parker and catcher Ashley Holcombe. Kentucky and Tennessee had two players each to finish off the squad. The Wildcats’ representatives are shortstop Molly Johnson and P/DP Rachel Riley, while the Volunteers are represented by outfielder Erinn Webb and catcher/first baseman Jen Lapicki.
“I give my kids a lot of credit for being able to play with the looseness and intensity and composure that they played with,” Walton said. “I think we’ve worked very hard to get to this point and they deserve all the accolades and all the praise that we can give them.”
But first, there’s more work to be done. Florida doesn’t want to play the “what if” game this offseason.